Although the marine environment has generally been considered to be less in need of attention from conservationists, politicians and managers than the terrestrial environment, there has been an increasing appreciation that there is little left in the marine environment that can be considered unaltered by humans. Conservation action is therefore urgently needed to protect marine populations, species and environments from anthropogenic pressures. Since overharvesting seems to be the main cause of the collapse in coastal ecosystems, areas need to be protected so that stocks can recover. However, the proclamation of such marine protected areas (MPAs) need to be well planned to ensure that species are well represented and that their biological requirements are met in the long term. While terrestrial conservation planners have started to incorporate biological, social and economic information into so-called systematic conservation plans, marine planners have been more hesitant to use these approaches due to the greater openness of the ocean (with the associated greater dispersal of marine organisms and propogules, lower levels of endemism, and lack of ownership) and the paucity of available information. The current study aimed to investigate the applicability of systematic approaches to the process of selecting sites for a network of potential replenishment zones for seabream species that could supplement protection already afforded by existing no-fishing reserves. Since many of these seabream species are popular targets in both the recreational and commercial linefishery sectors, they have been overexploited and are in need of additional protection. Information on these species and the diversity of their associated reefs were obtained through consultations with scientists, managers and resource-users (namely SCUBA divers, spearfishers as well as recreational and commercial fishers). These data were obtained during workshops where Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) scoring and mapping methods were applied. Although ordinal-scale, rather than interval-or ratio-scale data were obtained, these data could be used in an interactive selection process. Because these methods require relatively cheap materials and few personnel, they could be used to collect information where limited budgets are available. Quantitative targets for the protection of individual species were set on the basis of their status in the Marine Living Resource Act, since this reflected their different requirements for protection. A preliminary investigation indicated that the current no-fishing reserves effectively achieved most of these goals for seabream species. The selection of sites for the replenishment network was based on irreplaceability analyses, while decisions between sites with lower irreplaceability values were based on explicit design rules. A total of 26 sites were required to achieve targets for all species. These replenishment zones could potentially be established, managed and monitored by voluntary community groups. This study therefore indicated that systematic conservation planning can successfully be applied to the marine environment, while the involvement of stakeholders is crucial to ensure that conservation action is supported.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:11064 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Bause, Mariëtte |
| Publisher | University of Port Elizabeth, Faculty of Science |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MSc |
| Format | 105 pages, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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