Community-based MPAs: their contribution towards achieving regional-scale conservation targets in the Philippines

Abstract

Located within the coral triangle, the Philippines is widely recognised as a global priority for marine conservation. Despite enormous pressure on marine resources, the Philippines has emerged as a success story, with hundreds of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs). Much of this success has been attributed to a community-driven, ‘bottom-up’ approach to MPA implementation. However, such approaches are fundamentally at odds with the concept of regional-scale conservation planning. Local-scale objectives, typically fisheries management, differ from regional-scale objectives that emphasise the representation of biodiversity. Using a newly compiled database with records for more than 700 reserves, we assessed the feasibility of achieving regional-scale conservation objectives through community-based MPA implementation. The current extent and distribution of MPAs does not adequately represent biodiversity. At present, only 2.8% of coral reef area in the Philippines is protected within no-take MPAs. Moreover, 90% of this area occurs within just two sites, with the majority of MPAs below the recommended minimum size of 1km2. However, inter-protected area spacing is such that larval connectivity between sites is likely, providing opportunities to develop regional-scale networks using existing MPAs as a foundation. Our results indicate that, even if adopted universally, community-based MPAs will not be sufficient to meet conservation targets without large increases in size. We thus recommend a two-pronged approach, whereby continued efforts to increase the number of community-based MPAs are supplemented by the designation of additional large no-take areas with a conservation focus.