How to use diverse incentives to promote effective and equitable MPA governance
Channel: OCTO (Open Communications for the Ocean)
Date: 2021-07-07

This webinar originally aired on 7 July 2021.

Presented by: Peter Jones of University College London

MPA governance is the modification of human behavior (e.g., fishing, tourism, coastal development activities) through an appropriate combination of incentives – including economic, legal, participation, communication, and knowledge incentives. Previous research on MPA governance case studies has developed and explored the hypothesis that the use of diverse incentives is critical to developing MPA governance that is both effective (i.e., they achieve conservation objectives and are not “paper parks) and equitable (i.e., local customs and traditional ways of life are conserved, participation of local people is provided for, the costs and benefits of conservation are fairly shared). This webinar presents 28 new case studies (including a case study of the emerging policy framework for MPAs beyond national jurisdiction) to test this hypothesis and develop practical guidance for MPA managers and policy practitioners on how to combine a diversity of governance incentives to promote effectiveness and equity. Our research found that while many MPAs already employ a diversity of incentives, many of the incentives needed to be strengthened and others needed to be introduced.

Co-sponsors: NOAA National MPA Center and OCTO (MPA News, OpenChannels, EBM Tools Network)