Cesar2000-Economics of Coral Reefs.pdf

as, lagoons and coral reefs were perceived as having
declined more than mangrove habitats.
3.3 Perceived Compliance with Management Rules
Out of 648 perceptions of compliance with coastal resource
management rules, the majority (51 percent) indicated
full compliance, while 15 percent believed the rules were
being ignored. While these results may be overly optimistic
due to the sensitive nature of the information, the
indicator remains useful in comparing the perceived
compliance with different rules. In general, poor compliance
was associated with weak enforcement, unawareness
of the rules, a need for income, and turtle eating
habits. Perceptions of full compliance, on the other
hand, were most often associated with well-publicised
deterrents for violations, rather than voluntary restraint.
Compliance perceptions varied significantly by type of
rule. Pairwise comparisons indicated that protected areas,
closed seasons, and destructive fishing practice rules were
perceived as resulting in significantly better compliance
than rules such as size limits, bans on the harvest of
certain species, and restrictions on outsiders (figure 4). 7
Another question with policy implications is whether
the perceived compliance varies according to the source
of the management rule — for example, do rules established
by the community itself (local rules) have better
compliance than national rules Pairwise tests showed
that national rules that have been adopted locally were
perceived as having greater compliance than either purely
local or purely national rules (figure 5). These are national
rules such as bans on destructive practices which
were seen as relevant at the local level, and were subsequently
adopted by community leaders as local rules.
Even though this could not be demonstrated by
quantitative analysis, rules enforced by buyers and/or
exporters, such as the crocodile trade in the Solomon
Islands, also appeared to have high compliance. By contrast,
compliance with turtle rules was perceived to be
poor. Communities felt that these rules conflicted with
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Full
compliance
Good
compliance
Weak
compliance
No
compliance
Area restrictions, protected areas, closed seasons, fishing practice rules
(N=141)
Restriction on outsiders, size limits, species fans (N=130)
Figure 4. Perceived compliance with coastal management
rules by type of rule.
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Full
compliance
Good
compliance
Weak
compliance
National rules which have been locally adopted (N=24)
Other rules (N=190)
No
compliance
7
The Mann-Whitney rank test was significant at the 5 percent level
(Siegel & Castellan 1988).
Figure 5. Perceived compliance with coastal management
rules by origin of the rule.
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JEFF MULLER, SOFIA BETTENCOURT & ROBERT GILLETT: