[Coral-List] Help Us Understand the Beauty of Coral Reefs (Douglas Fenner)

[Judi Lowe]

Hi Doug, Mark and Alina,

interesting and timely topic. I did my PhD on the impact of dive tourism on
the conservation of coral reefs and creation of livelihood for artisanal
fishers. I'm due to present a paper next week at the South Pacific
Underwater Medicine Society conference to be held in Cairns, Australia.
https://www.spums.au/index.php

The talk topic is:


*Dive tourism and the role of recognising tenure and providing livelihoods
in decreasing destructive fishing in marine protected areas*

Here's an excerpt of the abstract:

*Dive tourism and the role of recognising tenure and providing livelihoods
in decreasing destructive fishing in marine protected areas*

Judi Lowe Phd

*Abstract *

Dive tourism co-locates with marine protected area (MPAs) in the tropics
and is often cited for its capacity to create livelihoods. However, dive
operators can fail to recognise the tenure of local fishers and their
communities, restricting access to the coral reef resources upon which
livelihoods are based. Conflict arises, making local fishers and
communities enemies of conservation and increases destructive fishing
around dive sites. Currently, it is not known where dive operators
recognise tenure, if there is a relationship between recognising tenure and
providing livelihoods, or if improved livelihoods have any effect on
decreasing destructive fishing. To test this I did a quantitative survey of
dive operators in 100 less developed countries in the tropics, roughly
around the equator. I measured associations between conflict and tenure,
tenure and livelihoods, and livelihoods and decreases in 12 types of
destructive fishing. Results show that dive operators recognise tenure when
there is conflict with fishers. When they recognise tenure, dive operators
provide livelihoods that decrease nine types of destructive fishing;
killing turtles, poaching in MPAs and no-take zones, taking live reef fish
and lobster, shark fishing, killing whale sharks, shark finning, the use of
fine gauge nets, the taking of aquarium fish, and spear fishing. The
strongest decreases occur when dive operators have a high percentage of
staff who are local fishers, provide community benefit programs, train and
employ local dive professionals, employ locals in high skilled roles, and
lease coastal land from local communities. Understanding the relationships
between tenure, livelihoods and destructive fishing provides valuable
information to dive operators, MPA managers, governments and dive tourists
in conserving coral reef and fishery resources. Dive operators are
encouraged to take the novel approach of first recognising tenure and
improving livelihoods. This will decrease destructive fishing around dive
sites and increase both economic and environmental sustainability of dive
tourism.

Looking forward to discussion.

Cheers,

Judi