Institutional Analysis of Marine Reserves and Fisheries Governance Policy Experiments: A Case Study of Nassau Grouper Conservation in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Abstract

"Many tropical fisheries around the world are in crisis because of the depletion of valuable reef species and the destruction of habitat upon which they depend. The complexity of reef fisheries and lack of management resources in southern nations limit the potential effectiveness of policies that focus on single species. As a result, ecosystem-based fisheries management is increasingly viewed as the only real alternative for managing these tropical reef fisheries. There is a widely held view that the devolution of management power from central government managers to local communities is central to the ecosystem-based fisheries management process and that marine reserves are the primary tool by which to implement ecosystem-based fisheries management. Marine reserves can protect or enhance multiple ecosystem services simultaneously and arguments are often made that they are more cost-effective than other management options because they are easy to monitor and enforce."