The politics of participation: Evaluating stakeholder equity in co-management regimes

Within natural resource management, there is increasing criticism of the traditional model of top-down management as a method of governance, as researchers and managers alike have recognized that resources can frequently be better managed when stakeholders are directly involved in management. As a result, in recent years the concept of co-management of natural resources, in which management responsibilities are shared between the government and stakeholders, has become increasingly popular, both in the academic literature and in practice. However, while co-management has significant potential as a successful management tool, the issue of equity in co-management has rarely been addressed. It is necessary to understand the differential impacts on stakeholders of co-management processes and the degree to which diverse stakeholders are represented within co-management. Understanding the interests of various stakeholders can be a way to more effectively address the distributional and social impacts of coastal policies, which can in turn increase compliance with management measures and lead to more sustainable resource management regimes. This research seeks to take a closer look at the concepts of co-management and participation through a number of case studies of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Caribbean. (PDF contains 4 pages)

A model of the pelagic ecossystem in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean

English: Recent calls for a more holistic approach to fisheries management have motivated development of trophic mass-balance models of ecosystems that underlie fisheries production. We developed a model hypothesis of the pelagic ecosystem in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP) to gain insight into the relationships among the various species in the system and to explore the ecological implications of alternative methods of harvesting tunas. We represented the biomasses of and fluxes between the principal elements in the ecosystem with Ecopath, and examined the ecosystem's dynamic, time-series behavior with Ecosim. We parameterized the model for 38 species or groups of species, and described the sources, justifications, assumptions, and revisions of our estimates of the various parameters, diet relations, fisheries landings, and fisheries discards in the model. We conducted sensitivity analyses with an intermediate version of the model, for both the Ecopath mass-balance and the dynamic trajectories predicted by Ecosim. The analysis showed that changes in the basic parameters for two components at middle trophic levels, Cephalopods and Auxis spp., exert the greatest influence on the system. When the Cephalopod Q/B and Auxis spp. P/B were altered from their initial values and the model was rebalanced, the trends of the biomass trajectories predicted by Ecosim were not sensitive, but the scaling was sensitive for several components. We described the review process the model was subjected to, which included reviews by the IATTC Purse-seine Bycatch Working Group and by a working group supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. We fitted the model to historical time series of catches per unit of effort and mortality rates for yellowfin and bigeye tunas in simulations that incorporated historical fishing effort and a climate driver to represent the effect of El Niño-Southern Oscillation-scale variation on the system. The model was designed to evaluate the possible ecological implications of fishing for tunas in various ways. We recognize that a model cannot possibly represent all the complexity of a pelagic ocean ecosystem, but we believe that the ETP model provides insight into the structure and function of the pelagic ETP. Spanish: Llamamientos recientes hacia un enfoque más holístico al ordenamiento de la pesca han motivado el desarrollo de modelos tróficos de balance de masas de los ecosistemas que sostienen la producción pesquera. Desarrollamos una hipótesis modelo del ecosistema pelágico en el Océano Pacífico oriental tropical (POT) con miras a mejorar los conocimientos de las relaciones entre las distintas especies en el sistema y explorar las implicaciones ecológicas de métodos alternativos de capturar atunes. Con Ecopath representamos las biomasas de los elementos principales en el ecosistema, y los flujos entre los mismos, y con Ecosim examinamos el comportamiento dinámico del ecosistema con el tiempo. Parametrizamos el modelo para 38 especies o grupos de especies (denominados “componentes” del modelo), y describimos las fuentes, justificaciones, supuestos, y revisiones de nuestras estimaciones de los distintos parámetros, relaciones basadas en dieta, capturas retenidas de las pesquerías, y descartes de las mismas en el modelo. Realizamos análisis de sensibilidad con una versión intermedia del modelo, para el balance de masas de Ecopath y las trayectorias dinámicas predichas por Ecosim también. El análisis demostró que cambios en los parámetros básicos para dos componentes en niveles tróficos medianos, Cefalópodos y Auxis spp., ejercieron la mayor influencia sobre el sistema. Cuando se alteraron el Q/B de los Cefalópodos y el P/B de los Auxis spp. de sus valores iniciales y se balanceó el modelo de nuevo, las tendencias de las trayectorias de la biomasa predichas por Ecosim no fueron sensibles, pero la escala fue sensible para varios componentes. Describimos el proceso de revisión al que fue sujeto el modelo, inclusive revisiones por el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Captura Incidental de la CIAT y un grupo de trabajo apoyado por el Centro Nacional para Síntesis y Análisis Ecológicos. Ajustamos el modelo a series de tiempo históricas de capturas por unidad de esfuerzo y tasas de mortalidad de atunes aleta amarilla y patudo en simulaciones que incorporaron esfuerzo de pesca histórico e impulsos climáticos para representar el efecto de variaciones a escala de El Niño-Oscilación del Sur sobre el sistema. El modelo fue diseñado para evaluar las posibles implicaciones ecológicas de la pesca atunera de varias formas. Reconocemos la imposibilidad de que el modelo represente toda la complejidad de un ecosistema oceánico pelágico, pero creemos que el modelo del POT mejora los conocimientos de la estructura y función del POT pelágico.