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Coral reefs are a vital resource in the low-island Republic of Maldives, where the sustainable use of these resources is central to the continued economic success of the country's two largest sectors: tourism and fisheries. This recognition has led to numerous reef conservation and protection activities, including the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). As in many MPAs of the world, those in the Maldives exist only as paper parks: areas protected on paper but not in practice. Despite general recognition of the importance of reef resources, insufficient funds are allocated by government to implement these parks. This situation is compounded by the absence of specific information and detailed understanding by policy makers of the true value and economic benefits of reef resources. This thesis examines the an economic valuation of improved management of MPAs in the Maldives using Dhigali Haa, an MPA in Baa Atoll, Maldives, as a case study. A contingent valuation survey to elicit the willingness to pay of tourists visiting Baa Atoll to see improved management at the MPA was used in estimating the potential benefits. In addition, local community consultations were conducted to understand local perceptions of MPAs and their effectiveness, and to develop a feasible improved management scenario. The local consultations confirmed that Dhigali Haa was not effectively managed, leading to continued illegal use and degradation of the reef. The results of the CV survey revealed support from tourists visiting Baa Atoll to pay for improved management of Dhigali Haa. A one-off conservation fee per visit for all tourists visiting Baa Atoll was preferred over a user fee solely for divers visiting Dhigali Haa. The estimate for the mean WTP for the conservation fee was US$35±5 compared to a mean WTP of US$15±5 for the user fee. Comparisons between the cost of implementing improved management and the benefits gained from tourist fees showed that a conservation fee would be more beneficial than a user fee. The estimated net present value for funding the improved management via a conservation fee was US$8.65 million.

For protected areas worldwide, commercial tour operators are increasingly providing the services and products desired and needed by visitors to these areas. Given the engagement of both protected area managers and tour operators in protected areas, and inevitably with each other, it is critical that their relationship and its complexities are clearly understood. As such, the interests of managers and operators overlap insofar as that they work in the same locales, share some of the burden of service provision, and aim to offer a quality product. However, this study shows that they diverge in other ways, particularly given the commercial imperative that necessarily strongly influences the activities of their business, irrespective of its location. This thesis seeks to unpack the complexities of a relationship that is critically important both in terms of the quality of the tourism experiences offered by protected areas, and the conservation of such areas in the longer term. In order to obtain an understanding of the complexity of the interactions between protected area managers and tour operators, qualitative research methods were used, in which in-depth interviews provided a rich picture of the important diverse aspects and facets impacting on their relationships. This study found that both managers and operators considered the purpose of protected areas to be the conservation of biodiversity and their recreational use and enjoyment. Surprisingly, their similar values were unknown to them. A major influence on their relationships was their perceptions of power, with ‘dominant’ power largely based on legislative and regulatory mandates, perceived to rest with the protected area managers. In contrast, this study also found evidence of ‘resistant’ power. This form of Foucauldian power was held particularly by operators in one geographic locale, and was associated with the concepts of cultural groupings and groupthink. The underlying public policy context influenced the effectiveness of the collaborative efforts of managers and operators. Interwoven with these differences were variable expectations regarding the nature and purpose of communication and what collaboration might ‘mean’. These findings importantly suggest several future directions for both practice and research. First, managers and operators share values and hold both similar and different expectations and perceptions, similarities and differences which are significant. Secondly, understanding the importance of power and how it is exercised is critical if successful relationships between managers and operators are to be fostered. Finally, further unpackaging of the meaning of communication and collaboration for managers and operators, a process initiated in this study, is essential if relationships between these groups involved in conservation and recreation in protected areas are to be improved. Therefore, this study suggests that their collaboration can be enhanced at individual, organisational/locale and policy levels, by adopting and implementing an action research framework.

Thesis (M.Env.Dev.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-129). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Orientador: Wagner Cotroni Valenti / Resumo: O desafio global para a gestão de áreas protegidas é conciliar desenvolvimento social e conservação. Nós apresentamos um estudo de caso sobre o desenvolvimento da aquicultura do lambari em uma comunidade rural localizada na área de entorno do Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, sudeste do Brasil, com ênfase na informação disponível sobre o status e potenciais impactos sócio-ecológicos da cadeia produtiva. Práticas de manejo inadequadas e falta de ciência aplicada tem levado à baixa produtividade e um alto consumo de recursos naturais. A aquicultura do lambari praticada no parque consome três vezes mais água e nutrientes por tonelada de peixe do que outros sistemas semi-intensivos de aquicultura realizados no Brasil e no exterior. Estratégias simples e alternativas são necessárias para melhorar a eficiência dos sistemas. Com mais pesquisa aplicada, a aquicultura de peixes nativos, de baixo nível trófico, como o lambari, pode ser uma ferramenta importante para a produção de alimentos e desenvolvimento sustentável das populações rurais no Brasil. Além disso, pode representar uma alternativa para geraração de renda para populações que vivem no entorno de áreas de conservação... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The current global challenge for protected areas management is to reconcile social development and conservation. We report on a case study of the development of lambari aquaculture in a rural community located in a protected coastal rainforest in SE Brazil, with an emphasis on available information on the status and potential socio-ecological impacts of this innovative enterprise. Poor management practices and a lack of applied science has led to low productivity and a high consumption of natural resources. Lambari aquaculture performed in this protected area consumes three times more water and nutrients per ton of fish than other comparable semi-intensive aquaculture systems globally. Simple, alternative strategies are needed to improve systems' efficiencies. With participatory applied science, the aquaculture of indigenous, low trophic level fish such as the lambari can be an important tool for sustainable food production and development of rural populations, and an alternative income source for poor communities remaining in nature reserves in Brazil... (Complete abstract electronic access below) / Mestre

Esta dissertação de mestrado consiste em um estudo epistemológico da questão ambiental, baseado na análise das identidades territoriais das populações habitantes de Unidades de Conservação (UC’s). Tais populações geralmente têm um modo de vida peculiar e muito vinculado com o espaço onde vivem. Além disso, elas também têm outras percepções sobre a questão ambiental e os conceitos relacionados. Estas percepções, entretanto, geralmente são subjugadas em nome da tecnocracia presente nos órgãos e instituições que trabalham com a temática ambiental. Neste contexto, o trabalho realiza um levantamento dos impasses e conflitos existentes a partir das considerações acima expostas, e os relaciona com as visões, sobre a questão ambiental, dos diferentes grupos sociais envolvidos (poder público, setor privado, ONG´s, movimentos sociais e populações tradicionais). A esta análise acrescenta uma (re)leitura dos métodos científicos à luz da epistemologia (positivismo, neopositivismo, materialismo histórico e dialético, fenomenologia, pós-modernismo e anarquismo), e o modo como cada um deles entende os conceitos de natureza e ambiente. Após, relaciona estas concepções metodológicas com as visões dos diferentes grupos, identificando a posição mais ligada a cada um deles. Com isso, as UC’s são questionadas a partir de sua base epistêmica, que reflete a matriz de pensamento ocidental moderno, e que por sua vez tende a dicotomizar homem e natureza. Ao final, são propostas outras leituras, baseadas em outras matrizes epistemológicas, para superar os impasses relativos a este viés da questão ambiental. / This dissertation consists in an epistemological study of the environmental question, based on analysis of territorial identities of the populations inhabitants in protected areas. Such populations usually have a peculiar lifestyle, very linked with the geographical space where they live. Moreover, they have other perceptions about the environmental question and their related concepts. However, this perceptions are generally subjugated by the “technocracy” present in the agencies and institutions that works with the environmental thematic. In this context, the work carries through a survey, the impasses and conflicts produced by the considerations above displayed, and it relates them with the environmental question views of the different involved social groups (government power, private sector, nongovernment organizations, social and activities movements and indigenous people). To this analysis, it adds a (re)reading of the scientific methods, viewed from epistemological “eyes” (positivism, neopositivism, historical and dialectical materialism, phenomenology, postmodernism and anarchism), and the way as each one of them understands the concepts of nature and environment. After, it relates these methodological conceptions with the views of the different groups, identifying the position more connected with each of them. From this, the protected areas are questioned from your epistemic basis, that reflects the modern occidental thought matrix, and that tends to dichotomize man and nature. To the end, other readings, based on other epistemological matrices, are proposals, to surpass the impasses relatives to this side of the environmental question.

Esta dissertação de mestrado consiste em um estudo epistemológico da questão ambiental, baseado na análise das identidades territoriais das populações habitantes de Unidades de Conservação (UC’s). Tais populações geralmente têm um modo de vida peculiar e muito vinculado com o espaço onde vivem. Além disso, elas também têm outras percepções sobre a questão ambiental e os conceitos relacionados. Estas percepções, entretanto, geralmente são subjugadas em nome da tecnocracia presente nos órgãos e instituições que trabalham com a temática ambiental. Neste contexto, o trabalho realiza um levantamento dos impasses e conflitos existentes a partir das considerações acima expostas, e os relaciona com as visões, sobre a questão ambiental, dos diferentes grupos sociais envolvidos (poder público, setor privado, ONG´s, movimentos sociais e populações tradicionais). A esta análise acrescenta uma (re)leitura dos métodos científicos à luz da epistemologia (positivismo, neopositivismo, materialismo histórico e dialético, fenomenologia, pós-modernismo e anarquismo), e o modo como cada um deles entende os conceitos de natureza e ambiente. Após, relaciona estas concepções metodológicas com as visões dos diferentes grupos, identificando a posição mais ligada a cada um deles. Com isso, as UC’s são questionadas a partir de sua base epistêmica, que reflete a matriz de pensamento ocidental moderno, e que por sua vez tende a dicotomizar homem e natureza. Ao final, são propostas outras leituras, baseadas em outras matrizes epistemológicas, para superar os impasses relativos a este viés da questão ambiental. / This dissertation consists in an epistemological study of the environmental question, based on analysis of territorial identities of the populations inhabitants in protected areas. Such populations usually have a peculiar lifestyle, very linked with the geographical space where they live. Moreover, they have other perceptions about the environmental question and their related concepts. However, this perceptions are generally subjugated by the “technocracy” present in the agencies and institutions that works with the environmental thematic. In this context, the work carries through a survey, the impasses and conflicts produced by the considerations above displayed, and it relates them with the environmental question views of the different involved social groups (government power, private sector, nongovernment organizations, social and activities movements and indigenous people). To this analysis, it adds a (re)reading of the scientific methods, viewed from epistemological “eyes” (positivism, neopositivism, historical and dialectical materialism, phenomenology, postmodernism and anarchism), and the way as each one of them understands the concepts of nature and environment. After, it relates these methodological conceptions with the views of the different groups, identifying the position more connected with each of them. From this, the protected areas are questioned from your epistemic basis, that reflects the modern occidental thought matrix, and that tends to dichotomize man and nature. To the end, other readings, based on other epistemological matrices, are proposals, to surpass the impasses relatives to this side of the environmental question.