Social Science

Over the last few years, many federal, state and local agencies have embarked on major initiatives to design marine protected areas (MPAs) for a variety of purposes, including biodiversity conservation, fishery management, endangered species protection, marine parks for tourists and local residents, and cultural resources protection. These initiatives are complex and often controversial, in part, because they can result in the restriction of human uses. Some of the controversy over MPA initiatives stems from a range of socioeconomic and cultural differences among affected stakeholders and communities including differences in cultural values, systems of meaning, aesthetics, use patterns, and economic activities. Unfortunately, federal and state management agencies often lack key information on the social, cultural, and economic dimensions that affect the success of MPA planning, management, and evaluation. To date, the vast majority of research and literature on MPAs has focused on natural science, with largely anecdotal references to social science and few rigorous programs evaluating the complexities of the human dimensions of MPAs. This critical information gap must be addressed in order to promote sound decision-making that takes into account the human and nonhuman dimensions of the environment. The inability to adequately address the human dimension of MPAs is perhaps the greatest single impediment to their broader and effective use in marine conservation today.

National Social Science Research Strategy
To begin to address this need, the National Marine Protected Areas Center worked with several agency and academic partners to develop a national strategy for social science research to inform and evaluate MPA processes. The strategy identifies six priority social science research themes: governance, institutions, and processes; use patterns; attitudes, perception and beliefs; economics of MPAs; communities; and cultural heritage and resources. The Social Science Research Strategy for Marine Protected Areas is available online. The strategy is summarized in a brochure which is also available online.

Regional Social Science Research
The National Marine Protected Areas Center recognized the need to move from the broad perspective of the national social science strategy to a more focused and region-specific approach to the identification of social science priorities. The MPA Center proposed the development of regional social science research plans in order to address local and regional MPA-related research priorities and information needs. These plans are based on the results of regional workshops that bring together social scientists, MPA practitioners, stakeholders, and managers to identify projects for addressing MPA social science needs. Priority research themes identified in the national strategy provide guidance and structure for the regional workshops.

The regional social science workshops are being conducted in seven regions: Caribbean and South Florida, South Atlantic, Pacific Islands, Pacific Coast/Alaska, New England and Mid-Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes. Workshops have been held in the first four regions in August 2003, December 2003, March 2004, and December 2005, respectively. Read the reports from Caribbean and South Florida, South Atlantic, Pacific Islands, Pacific Coast regional social science research workshops. Workshops will be conducted in other regions when resources become available.

Website on Social Science Methods for Marine Protected Areas
The Social Science Methods for Marine Protected Areas website, developed by the National Marine Protected Areas Center in cooperation with the NOAA Coastal Services Center, profiles social science tools and methods and provides examples on how these are used by MPA managers. The website contains sections on social science themes, tools (including surveys, demographic analysis, non-market valuation, and social assessment), and case studies.

Read the report from the Mapping Human Activity in the Marine Environment: GIS Tools and Participatory Methods workshop held in California from November 30-December 3, 2005.

Human Use Patterns and Impacts Project
This project is designed to document the connections between people and the marine environment in order to inform regional, place-based, ecosystem approaches to management on the west coast. Project objectives include identifying and collecting existing data, developing a GIS database for storage and analysis purposes, and developing a participatory method and approach for gathering new data on human activities to fill gaps in existing data. The results will aid future efforts to identify location where use patterns pose a potential threat to resource, the categories of user groups that need to be engaged in participatory management, user conflicts and equity issues that may need to be addressed, and the socioeconomic importance of activities to communities.