Socioeconomics of the California Channel Islands

A review paper completed by G.E. Davis in 2005 looked at the interaction of science and society in attempt to restore marine ecosystems in the Channel Islands National Park and National Marine Sanctuary in California. This blog will focus on the power of socioeconomics and the factors involved in the design of marine protected areas.  

Figure 1: Location of the California Channel Islands (Davis, 2005)

California Channel Islands, sometimes referred as America’s Galapagos, is composed of 8 islands.  Many people value and recognized these islands as areas of recreation, inspiration, environmental benchmarks.  In 1938, Channel Islands National Park was proclaimed a national monument and is one of only 40 marine protected areas in the United States National Park System.  This designation started decades of special interest and attention to these islands and their adjacent water. About 30 years later, the United States National Park Service expressed concerned about the decreasing sea life.  The United States National Park Service decided to restrict fishing and kelp cutting to half of the water.

However, between 1980 and 1998 there was a collapse of marine life populations and a loss of up close to 80% of the giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) forests. This proved that the habitat and water quality protection alone did not secure a sustainable ocean ecosystem or sustainable fisheries.

 Figure 2: Macrocystis pyrifera, Photo by James Watanabe, Stanford University

Due to the failed fishery management strategies, community and agency requests began for a network of reserves to be created. These reserve areas would be protected from direct fishing impacts and act as marine recovery areas.  Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary formed an advisory council to provide advice on protecting resources, education opportunities, identifying critical issues, etc… This council was formed with 10 government seats and 10 non-government seats. The 10 non-government seats represented a wide variety of topics such as commercial fishing, research, conservation, tourism, education, business and recreation. There were also 3 citizens at large on the advisory council.

For 2 years, there was an attempt to build a community consensus based on science to create a reserve network. From this, there were recovery goals identified for economics, education, biodiversity, fisheries and heritage values. However, the advisory council was not successful in getting unanimous support for a specific reserve network to reach these common recovery goals. 

  Figure 3: Differentiating non-negotiable ecological and negotiable socioeconomic contributions of factors critical for achieving desired values and goals for the California Channel Islands (Davis, 2005).

To reach consensus on marine reserve designs, differentiating the relative non-negotiable ecological and negotiable socioeconomic contributions of factors critical for achieving desired goals was needed. According to the Figure 2 in the review paper, questions about minimum viable populations and communities, and representative habitats are largely informed by scientific inquiry. Questions of value to the general public, fairness of resource allocations and equitable distribution of risk and rewards are resolved by informed public policy.

The advisory council did submit a recommendation to state and federal government authorities in 2001 for action to be completed in their respective jurisdictions. Two years after, in 2003, California adopted the half of the network in state waters in 2003. This whole process exposes the socioeconomic factors that are involved in the design of marine protected areas that can be negotiated among different groups of people. This review paper states that understanding the differences among the factors was crucial information in reaching consensus and changing public policies.

It is important to consider the power that socioeconomics has on designing marine protected areas. Newfoundland and Labrador only currently have two protected areas (Gilbert’s Bay and Eastport, mentioned in previous blogs). Public agencies, environmental groups and local communities could learn from this example of the power of socioeconomics in the California Channel Islands. If more organizations, groups, agencies and the public put pressure on federal authorities to create more marine protected areas, then perhaps Newfoundland and Labrador would have more marine protected areas.

References:

Photograph by James Watanbe, Stanford University, 2010.

Davis, G. (2005). Science and Society: Marine Reserve Design for the California Channel Islands. Conservation Biology , 1745-1751.