Fishing-focused marine conservation planning underestimates losses of other ecosystem benefits to local communities.

ABSTRACT: Incorporating meaningful social and economic information into conservation planning is challenging but critical to minimizing impacts of conservation actions on livelihoods and increasing the likelihood of compliance with restrictions on resource use. The social impacts of conservation reserves are generally included in planning mostly through opportunity costs. For marine systems, these opportunity costs tend to be measured only for fishers. However, the services and associated benefits people gain from their marine environments go beyond food and income from fishing. People also benefit from recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, spiritual connections, medicine, and culture. We explored how conservation planning can be informed and optimized with data on how people value coral-reef ecosystem b

SUBMITTER: Hamel MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12909983 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature