Governance of Marine Protected Areas: Where the Past Meets the Future
2016
Weber De Morais, Gabriela | Schlüter, Achim | Verweij, Marco | Leibniz-Zentrum Für Marine Tropenökologie GmbH
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has set a target of protecting 10% of all coastal and marine areas through protected areas and other conservation measures by 2020. As of 2012, only 2.3% of the total ocean surface area was estimated to be under protected status.1 Furthermore, many existing marine protected areas (MPAs) face significant shortcomings. As we suspected that poor performance relates to weaknesses in the formal and informal rules (institutions) influencing MPA governance, a situation that is particularly problematic in developing nations, we considered this issue through an examination of MPAs in Costa Rica. As Costa Rica has a long history of conservation and has recently been working to improve its MPAs, it provides an opportunity to observe how governance challenges have been reproduced over time and how stakeholders are trying to overcome them. In order to explain the current state of MPA governance in Costa Rica, we used a qualitative research approach, drew on theories of institutional stability and change, and posed four questions: What are the current challenges for MPA governance in Costa Rica? How have these challenges emerged over time? What improvements have taken place? Which issues still need to be addressed and why?
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