Assessing stakeholder perceptions to guide social and ecological fit of marine protected areas

Effective social and ecological interventions that can benefit both nature and people are needed to halt the degradation of ecosystems and subsequent negative impacts on human well-being. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are commonly used to foster the sustainability of coastal social-ecological systems. However, because MPAs are often proposed and implemented by external actors, ensuring they are fit to the local social and ecological context remains a challenge. Here, we introduce a framework to identify the place-based social and ecological goals for an MPA. We use a marine conservation project in the Philippines as a case study. We assess the perceptions of local communities and decision-makers across four categories: (i) marine importance, (ii) environmental stressors, (iii) proposed management options, and (iv) MPA goals and needs. Assessing these is a way to refine marine conservation goals locally, adapt the implementation of planned interventions, and monitor their future outcomes.