Single large or several small marine reserves

[John McManus]

SLOSS and corridor research are fascinating and important areas of research.
A lot of progress has been made, and much more remains to be studied.

Interestingly, most of the work has focussed on biological aspects.
Management, of course, is a practice of modifying human behavior. As soon as
one looks at the socioeconomic side of SLOSS, one realizes that there are
(within a typical large country or region) situations in which large
reserves are practical (often in areas of sparse habitation), and situations
in which only tiny reserves (less than a few sq. km) are practical, lest
small scale fishers be excluded from their sources of livelihood. Johannes
has rightly emphasized that small village-initiated reserves will often be a
key element in a rational conservation strategy, and these would generally
have to be set up based on crude guidelines without much outside "expert"
inputs (the "dataless reserves"). Thus, in practical terms, the answer to a
SLOSS problem is usually going to be a mixture of small and large reserves,
and a balance against "background" coastal regulation. Some species need
large "hunting" grounds. Others need a range of habitat types to complete
their life cycles. Under some conditions of widespread overharvesting and
reef degradation, one might be in a situation to put heavy emphasis on
setting up reserves to keep the ecosystems healthy. In those cases, a
fascinating problem for the biophysical scientist is to determine a range of
viable combinations of small and large reserves, with recommendations on
minimal priority needs for improving general coastal management. These would
then be trimmed down by socioeconomic scientists into a finer "region" of
options to be considered by managers and policy makers in interaction with
stakeholders. Thus, the answer to a SLOSS problem is generally going to be
the determination of a range of viable options, usually involving mixtures,
rather than a single answer.

For those seeking references, some of this is covered in:

McManus, J.W. 1997. Marine reserves and biodiversity: Towards 20% by 2020.
In: McManus, J. W., van Zwol, C., Garces, L.R. and Sadacharan, D. (eds)
1998. A Framework for Futrue Training in Marine and Coastal Protected Area
Management. ICLARM Conf. Proc. 57, 54  p.
There is a lot of material on societal aspects of MPAs in this small
proceedings. There may still be copies available from:
Coastal Zone Management Centre, P.O. Box 20907, 2500 Ex The Hague.


Cheers,

John

		l Message-----
		From:	Jan Korrubel [mailto:korrubelj at science.unp.ac.za]
		Sent:	Thursday, November 11, 1999 9:13 PM
		To:	sarrameg at ufp.univ-nc.nc
		Cc:	coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
		Subject:	Re: Single large or several small marine
reserves

		Hi C-Listers / Sebastien,

		>> SARRAMEGNA Sebastien <sarrameg at ufp.univ-nc.nc> wrote:
		I am working on marine protected areas....Does anybody have
information
		on difference between large ands small reserve also named as
SLOSS
		theory.

		Here in South Africa, COLIN ATTWOOD is one of the
researchers on marine
		reserves, sizes of reserves and their suitability /
function.  He is
		also a member of the Marine Reserves Task Group who brought
out a
		publication "Towards a new policy on Marine Protected Areas
for South
		Africa" in July 1997.

		His direct application is to (mathematically) model reserves
with
		respect to linefish and (line) fishing sustainability (and
has published
		some of this) - he may well have some info useful to you..

		He is working at MCM (Marine Conservation and Management -
used to the
		Department of Sea Fisheries) in Cape Town, and can be
reached at
		<cattwood at sfri.wcape.gov.za>.


		Hope this helps.

		Regards,

		Jan Korrubel
		University of Natal
		South Africa.