Producing Success: Co-Management of a Marine Protected Area in Belize

Abstract

"Marine protected areas (MPAs) have proliferated in recent years, and are an increasingly popular tool for marine resource management and conservation. Comanagement is often recommended as an ideal form of governance for marine protected areas. This paper analyzes the co-management of a marine protected area in southern Belize, the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve. Drawing on recent thinking about networks and the construction of scale, the co-management of Gladden Spit is analyzed as a network of social relations in which actors engage in politics of scale. These scalar constructions influence interpretations of the success of Gladden Spit. In contrast to instrumental views of policy, success is understood as an interpretation sustained by actors in the network. Gladden Spit is seen as successful because it supports multiple interpretations of knowledge and environmental problems at both the local and regional level."