Elsevier

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have proliferated globally in the past three decades. However, inadequate funding often prevents these management regimes from fulfilling their missions. Managers have become increasingly aware that successful protection of marine ecosystems is dependent not only upon an understanding of their biological and physical processes, but also their associated social and economic aspects. Unfortunately, economic values associated with MPAs and the natural resources they protect are rarely considered in decision-making and policy development. This study addresses this information gap by examining scuba divers’ willingness to pay for access to quality recreational sites in the Bonaire National Marine Park, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. The findings indicate that the US$10 annual diver user fee in effect at the time of the study could be increased substantially without a significant adverse effect on island tourism. Depending on question format, mean willingness to pay for annual access ranged from US$61 to US$134 (2002$). All model specifications support the conclusion that doubling the US$10 user fee would have virtually no impact on visitation rates. The increased revenue generated from this sustainable financing mechanism is more than sufficient to fund both current and enhanced marine park operations. 

Keywords: Marine protected area (MPA), Scuba diving, User fee, Natural resource valuation

Abstract

Understanding the drivers and barriers to participation in citizen science initiatives for conservation is important if long-term involvement from volunteers is expected. This study investigates the motivations of individuals from five marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Dutch Caribbean to (not) participate in different initiatives around lionfish. Following an interpretive approach, semi-structured interviews with seventy-eight informants were conducted and analyzed using thematic network analysis. Approximately 60% (n = 48) of informants indicated that they had participated in citizen science initiatives at the outset of the invasion. From this group, almost half said that they still participated in some type of data collection, but only a few did so within a citizen science context. Many informants were initially motivated to participate in lionfish detection and response initiatives due to concern for the environment. Personal meanings attached to both the data collection experiences and to the data influenced informants’ motivations to sustain or cease data collection and/or sharing. In time, the view of lionfish as a threat changed for many informants as this species’ recreational and/or commercial value increased. Enabling and constraining factors for data collection and sharing were identified at the personal, interpersonal, organizational and technical levels. Our findings have implications for the design of future citizen science initiatives focused on invasive species.

The strategic location of small islands in the Caribbean, close to the United States of America (USA), and their historical trade roots as former colonies of Europe make them an interesting business environment. Small islands' eagerness for economic development and their limited governance capacity often result in an unequal relationship between multinational private parties and small islands' policy actors, especially in regard to environmental management. This is also observed at St. Eustatius, a small Caribbean island that hosts a crucial oil storage and transshipment terminal that compromises the environmental state of the small island. However, in 2010, St. Eustatius (Statia) became part of the Netherlands, which significantly changed the responsibilities related to environmental management. Bringing the environmental state back in reversed existing power relations. To analyze these changing power dynamics, we apply the new social scientific concept of marine community, which encompasses a user community and a policy community and shows the different interests and power dynamics within and between them. While governance of the oil terminal used to be determined by structural power in the user community on behalf of NuStar, it currently relies on the structural power of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (I&E) in the policy community. In theory, structural power to bring the environmental state back in would be beneficial for governance. In practice, however, this is challenging because a small island environmental state is different from the environmental state in countries in Western societies. Although the Dutch Ministry has structural power, the way it relates to others (dispositional power) and uses resources (relational power) should be better adapted to the needs and characteristics of small island environmental states such as Statia.

A unique and novel stereotypic ‘smearing’ behavior and the formation of an odoriferous dorsal patch have been recently described in two species of long-nosed bats, Leptonycteris curasoae and L. yerbabuenae (Glossophaginae: Phyllostomidae). It has been hypothesized that this structure represents a mechanism involved in female mate choice mediated through odor, and that it has only evolved within the genus Leptonycteris. No evidence has been published indicating whether the smearing behavior and the dorsal patch occur in L. nivalis, the third extant species within the genus. We reviewed the available data on the mating behavior of L. nivalis and conducted four surveys on the only mating colony known for this species at Cueva del Diablo, Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico, searching for evidence of both the smearing behavior and the dorsal patch in reproductive males of this species. Our findings indicate that L. nivalis does not display the smearing behavior or the dorsal patch, suggesting that this trait and its role in mate choice by females must have evolved from a common ancestor of L. yerbabuenae and L. curasoae after it separated from L. nivalis, between 1.0 and 0.5 million years ago. We propose a possible hypothetical scenario for the evolution of the smearing behavior, based on differential levels of ectoparasitic pressure acting on bat populations established at locations with markedly different environmental temperatures.