A user-friendly tool to evaluate the effectiveness of no-take marine reserves.

ABSTRACT: Marine reserves are implemented to achieve a variety of objectives, but are seldom rigorously evaluated to determine whether those objectives are met. In the rare cases when evaluations do take place, they typically focus on ecological indicators and ignore other relevant objectives such as socioeconomics and governance. And regardless of the objectives, the diversity of locations, monitoring protocols, and analysis approaches hinder the ability to compare results across case studies. Moreover, analysis and evaluation of reserves is generally conducted by outside researchers, not the reserve managers or users, plausibly thereby hindering effective local management and rapid response to change. We present a framework and tool, called "MAREA", to overcome these challenges. Its purpose is to

SUBMITTER: Villasenor-Derbez JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5790253 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature