Connecting-Africa | Find publications

Advanced search

Find:


Title Resilience to change: understanding social-ecological dynamics in reef-dependent fishing communities in Madagascar
Full text https://hdl.handle.net/1842/41914; http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/4637
Date 2024
Author(s) Carter, Amber L.
Contributor(s) Tudhope, Sandy; Wilson, Meriwether; Inall, Mark; Schurer, Andrew; Harris, Alasdair; Hegerl, Gabi; Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Abstract Coral reefs are located across the tropics, predominantly in developing countries where reef fisheries play an important role in generating income and supporting food security. These fisheries are increasingly governed in co-management arrangements, which typically involve a form of shared management authority between local resource users and a government or non-governmental partner. As coral ecosystems rapidly degrade, driven by climate change, overfishing and other anthropogenic impacts, effective co-management will be a critical pathway to secure a sustainable future for reef-dependant coastal communities. To support locally-relevant co-management strategies, a comprehensive understanding of the local social-ecological context is required ' including the environmental conditions, resource dynamics and the social and cultural setting. In this context, co-management stakeholders are increasingly investigating how different types of data, including scientific monitoring, local ecological knowledge, and citizen-science data can be used to inform management decisions. However, this remains under investigated in the context of reef fisheries co-management. This thesis addresses this gap by studying the social and ecological dynamics of traditional Vezo fishing communities and coral reef fisheries in the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) in southwest Madagascar. The research draws on data collected over two decades including citizen science reef monitoring data (2012 -2018), social surveys conducted in 11 villages in 2016 and 2021, semi-structured and key informant interviews, participatory video and climate reanalysis data. The thesis contains four research chapters structured as research articles. The first chapter assesses the impact and recovery of the coral ecosystem following the damage caused by Cyclone Haruna in 2013. Using generalized linear model analysis, we found the damage was spatially heterogeneous throughout the study region and that the coral reef sites showed positive signs of recovery in the two years following the cyclone. However, a shift in dominant coral species from fragile to more resilient morphologies following the cyclone indicates that an increased frequency of destructive cyclones could cause a shift in the coral assemblage. The second chapter examines the dynamics of adaptive capacity' the capacity of individuals or groups to cope with change' in the communities of Velondriake. Adaptive capacity is found to be differentiated between social groups but relatively stable over time. The findings suggest that co-management interventions, such as livelihood programmes could improve adaptive capacity. However, findings indicate that only certain adaptive capacity indicators were significantly associated with impact and response from disturbance events, and these indicators differed between the type of disturbance. These findings underscore that caution is required when using adaptive capacity indicators in the absence of locally derived evidence of actual adaptive behaviour. The third chapter integrates local knowledge and scientific approaches to examine catch trends and climate variability and change in the Velondriake LMMA over the past generation. The study reveals a long-term decline in fin fish and octopus fisheries that aligns with socioeconomic pressures. Shifting wind patterns were identified as a key climate variable impacting fishers' livelihoods. This chapter underscores the unequal impacts of declining catches on male and female fishers and disparities in adaptation options. The final research chapter is an investigation of how participatory video can be used as a tool to support co-management. Participatory video is found to be a means to synthesise local knowledge concerning shifting social and ecological conditions, fostering dialogue and action towards locally relevant management interventions. Collectively, the research in this thesis underscores the climate and ecological challenges faced by reef-dependent fishing communities and their ramifications on the social-ecological system in southwest Madagascar. It reveals differentiated resilience among community members to declining marine ecosystems and elucidates potential interventions that can be undertaken within a co-management framework to bolster the resilience of reef-dependent communities in the face of shifting conditions. Moreover, it emphasises that in data-scarce regions, local ecological knowledge and participatory research can facilitate capacity building and generate evidence to inform locally relevant marine management and governance decisions.
Subject(s) coral reef ecosystems; coral reef management; Vezo fishing community; Madagascar; cyclone damage; social factors; coastal ecosystems
Language en
Publisher The University of Edinburgh
Relation Carter, A.L., Gilchrist, H., Dexter, K.G., Gardner, C.J., Gough, C., Rocliffe, S., Wilson, A.M.W., 2022. Cyclone Impacts on Coral Reef Communities in Southwest Madagascar. Frontiers in Marine Science 639.; Carter, A.L., Maniry Soa, S.N., Arnull, J., Antion, P., Tudhope, A.W., Wilson, A.M.W., 2023. Participatory video as a tool for co-management in coastal communities: a case study from Madagascar. Frontiers in Human Dynamics 5.
Type of publication Thesis or Dissertation; Doctoral; PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Format application/pdf
Repository Edinburgh - University of Edinburgh
Added to C-A: 2024-06-26;10:19:34