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Assessing the Effect of Marine Reserves on Household Food Security in Kenyan Coral Reef Fishing Communities

Resource type
Date created
2014-11-25
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
Measuring the success or failure of natural resource management is a key challenge to evaluate the impact of conservation for ecological, economic and social outcomes. Marine reserves are a popular tool for managing coastal ecosystems and resources yet surprisingly few studies have quantified the social-economic impacts of marine reserves on food security despite the critical importance of this outcome for fisheries management in developing countries. Here, I conducted semi-structured household surveys with 113 women heads-of-households to investigate the influence of two old, well-enforced, no-take marine reserves on food security in four coastal fishing communities in Kenya, East Africa. Multi-model information-theoretic inference and matching methods found that marine reserves did not influence household food security, as measured by protein consumption, diet diversity and food coping strategies. Instead, food security was strongly influenced by fishing livelihoods and household wealth: fishing families and wealthier households were more food secure than non-fishing and poorer households. These findings highlight the importance of complex social and economic landscapes of livelihoods, urbanization, power and gender dynamics that can drive the outcomes of marine conservation and management.
Document
Published as
Darling ES (2014) Assessing the Effect of Marine Reserves on Household Food Security in Kenyan Coral Reef Fishing Communities. PLoS ONE 9(11): e113614. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113614
Publication title
PLoS ONE
Document title
Assessing the Effect of Marine Reserves on Household Food Security in Kenyan Coral Reef Fishing Communities
Date
2014
Volume
9
Issue
11
Publisher DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0113614
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author(s).
Scholarly level
Peer reviewed?
Yes
Language
English
Member of collection
Download file Size
1.pdf 6.69 MB

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