Do Marine Protected Areas Affect Human Nutrition and Health? A Comparison between Villages in Roviana, Solomon Islands

Abstract

The implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs) for fisheries management has increased recently due to the perceived role of MPAs in conserving biodiversity, increasing fish stocks, and enhancing the food security of coastal communities. However, it is unclear whether MPAs may restrict the availability of marine resources and decrease overall food security and the health of the people. In the Roviana Lagoon of the Solomon Islands, we conducted cross-comparisons of villages with MPAs and a village without an MPA to assess whether MPAs influenced local perceptions of governance, environmental change, livelihood strategies, and actual human nutrition and health. Results showed that residents of villages with effective MPAs had higher energy and protein intake than those who had no MPA or an ineffective MPA. We conclude that “no-take” marine reserves do not have adverse effects and that when MPAs are effectively sustained they may enhance local nutrition and health.

Keywords:

• human health and nutrition
• marine protected areas
• Oceania
• social impact assessment
• Solomon Islands

We thank the people of the Roviana and Vonavona Lagoons for supporting all of our research, conservation, development, and education programs, and the Provincial and National Governments of the Solomon Islands for permission to carry out our program over the past fifteen years. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Grants 2001-17407 and 2005-447628-58080), Conservation International-GCF (Grant 447628-59102), the Pew Charitable Trust (through a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, 2005), the National Science Foundation (Grant NSF-CAREER-BCS-0238539), and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Grant 60243) have also generously provided funds to Shankar Aswani for this research. The Japan Society for Promotion of Science also supported Takuro Furusawa's research in 2001 (leader: Prof. Ryutaro Ohtsuka at the University of Tokyo). Finally, we thank Gregory Zarow and the anonymous reviewers for comments on this article.