Strengthening small-scale fisheriesmanagementand conservation in Myanmar through locally managed marine areas
S OE THIH A,KYAW ZAY Y A,MUYA R AYE ,S OE TIN T AUNG ,S ALAI MON NYI NYI L IN F ILIPP O CARL I and HEN R Y DUFF Y
Abstract The NGO Fauna & Flora started working in the Myeik Archipelago, southern Myanmar in 2013, and in 2017 three locally managed marine areas were established to aid sustainable fisheries management and support bio- diversity conservation. These sites are the first protected areas specifically established for co-management of marine fisheries in Myanmar, in which long-term management rights have been formally granted to local fishing communi- ties. The establishment of a further four locally managed marine areas is now in progress, with ambitions for a net- work to be established throughout the archipelago. To track changes in these habitats over time, assess effectiveness and inform adaptive fisheries management, annual coral reef monitoring will be conducted at these community- managed sites. We provide an overview of the locally man- aged marine areas recently established in Myanmar and of proposed new sites, and detail the establishment of the first permanent coral reef monitoring transects. In sharing the initial evidence gathered on the impact of new, local man- agement measures, we aim to highlight the importance and benefit of developing marine resource management systems to strengthen fisheries management while simul- taneously establishing a monitoring framework to fill a national and global coral reef data gap.
Keywords Coral reef monitoring, fisheries management, locally managed marine area, marine conservation, Myan- mar, Tanintharyi
.800 islands scattered over an area of c. 34,000 km2. This archipelago remains one of the least studied coral reef ecosystems, and there is a paucity of scientific informa- tion on the diverse marine habitats of this region (Howard, 2018). In addition, a growing body of evidence suggests these
T
SOE THIHA,KYAW ZAYYA,MUYAR AYE,SOE TINT AUNG,SALAI MON NYI NYI LIN and FILIPPO CARLI (Corresponding author,
orcid.org/0000-0001-7513-292X,
filippo.carli@
fauna-flora.org) Fauna & Flora, Myanmar Programme, 34 D/9 San Yae Twin Street, Kaba Aye Pagoda Road, Bahan Township, Yangon 11201, Myanmar
HENRYDUFFY (
orcid.org/0000-0002-9360-5142) Fauna&Flora,Cambridge,UK
Received 7 December 2021. Revision requested 4 April 2022. Accepted 5 October 2022. First published online 20 February 2023.
he Myeik (formerly Mergui) Archipelago, in southern Myanmar in the north-east Andaman Sea, comprises
coral reef areas are threatened by overfishing, destructive dynamite fishing and trawling, impacts associated with climate change, increased sedimentation from terrestrial run-off, and pollution. In this context, one method of pro- tecting marine environments, and the livelihoods of commu- nities dependent upon them, is through the use of locally managed marine areas. These are a form of collaborative and adaptive fisheries management, where local resource users actively manage their waters with the support of NGOs, locally and nationally relevant institutions, and pri- vate interests (Govan et al., 2008). Management measures are continuously reviewed and adapted by stakeholders as required. In the Myanmar context, a locally managed marine area
differs from a conventional marine protected area in that the former is characterized by local ownership and manage- ment, often following traditional tenure and management practices. In contrast, marine protected areas are typically designated via a top-down governmental approach, with management led by a centralized agency (Govan et al., 2006). Marine protected areas often fall short of their original goals because of various factors, including signifi- cant ongoing lack of funding, low community engagement, and inadequate or ineffective enforcement (Rocliffe et al., 2014). In contrast, locally managed marine areas have garnered increasing support because of their adaptability to different contexts and focus on locally identified objec- tives that are negotiated and implemented by local stake- holders (Jupiter et al., 2014). They have also been identified as one of the most effective ways of achieving sustained and cost-efficient outcomes (Govan et al., 2008), although the objectives may not be explicitly focused on marine conser- vation, but rather prioritize sustainable resource manage- ment by local stakeholders. In Myanmar, other models have been successfully tested, such as the fisheries co- management areas in Rakhine State. The main difference between these models, and the reasons further develop- ments will follow the locally managed marine areas model, is that, in the Myanmar context, such areas are smaller (suitable for small, island-based communities) and provide exclusive right of access to resources for local communities. The NGO Fauna & Flora began working in the Myeik Archipelago in 2013, conducting extensive surveys to assess the status of habitats and species, and to identify important
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oryx, 2023, 57(2), 171–174 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605322001193
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