Source: Fredrik Öhlander // Unsplash
Environmental conservation is a noble goal on its own, but it turns out that there may also be selfish reasons to advocate for it. A new study, led by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), shows that marine protected areas can benefit both marine life and nearby human communities, according to a press release from the Smithsonian.
“Our study provides evidence that MPAs in the Mesoamerican Reef region have the potential to benefit both people and nature at the same time,” said Justin Nowakowski, SERC senior scientist and lead author of the study, published in Nature Sustainability.
Much like national parks and protected areas on land, “marine protected area (MPA)” is a broad term for a place in our ocean, estuaries, or Great Lakes where human activities are managed to protect natural or cultural resources, according to a fact sheet from the National Marine Protected Areas Center. MPAs are a key component to the “30 by 30” pledge made by nearly 200 nations at the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference. The pledge was an agreement to protect at least 30 percent of the planet’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030.
“Marine protected areas are hailed as a way to protect fisheries and ecosystems and promote well-being in coastal communities simultaneously,” said Steve Canty, co-author and coordinator of the Marine Conservation Lab at SERC. “This is one of the first attempts to evaluate these benefits together. Our data critically shows that well-enforced, no-take zones help rebuild fish populations and that these zones are associated with higher well-being in nearby coastal communities.”
The study was done by comparing data from ecological and social organizations. Using the Healthy Reefs Initiative’s data from monitoring reef fish, SERC scientists calculated that MPAs with the highest protections had on average 27 percent more fish biomass than unrestricted open-access zones. The number was even higher for commercially valuable fish like grouper, which had 35 percent more biomass.
This was then compared to social datasets from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which indicated that young children living near an MPA were about half as likely to suffer stunted growth, a key indicator of food insecurity. Additionally, the average wealth index (a measure of relative household income) was 33 percent higher in communities near the best-protected MPAs.
“The goals of sustainably managing marine resources, increasing food security and reducing poverty in local communities do not always lead to tradeoffs – these positive outcomes can occur in the same places,” Nowakowski said. “Under the right conditions, conservation interventions like MPAs may be central strategies for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals.”
