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398 A. H. Himes

others (Wells & White, 1995). This might include tourists, fishers from outside of the
reserve, and recreational fishers. Once they understand the regulations, they can pass the
information on, acting as a conduit for public education. Additionally, in the interviews,
most fishers indicated on maps that they only fish around their island or near their
village. If a given fisher eventually gains the technology to fish beyond his island and
village, he will need to know the entire reserve and zone boundaries and regulations that
apply to other parts of the reserve. In order to accomplish this, the regional government
could develop educational programs to help inform the fishers of the regulations so that
they understand them properly.

Involvement in Local Management

When the idea for a new reserve is first announced, many stakeholders may react nega-
tively, believing that the reserve will prevent them from recreational and artisanal fish-
ing, diving, or even experiencing the resources in the area in a nonconsumptive way. At
the outset, public education programs and community participation help alleviate this
resentment by convincing local stakeholders of the need for regulations and a reserve
and demonstrating how the reserve can benefit them, on both a sector-wide and personal
scale (Alder, 1992). Stakeholders should be involved from the outset as members of
advisory boards, focus groups, and technical committees that advise managers on design
and implementation issues in order to gain the support of the community from the outset
and develop sound management policies (Crosby et al., 2000; Rivera & Newkirk, 1997).
Local people who are aware of resource use and availability in the area can also provide
the needed information for baseline studies and monitoring efforts in addition to offer-
ing suggestions for and changes to regulations that will increase compliance and accep-
tance. They can be trained to teach user groups about the reserve and how they can be
involved in the management. Finally, enforcement by the community through peer pres-
sure and discouragement are normally more effective and less costly than commonly
used government-based enforcement (Wells & White, 1995).

Fishers in both MPAs were questioned about how represented and involved they
feel in local management. This question was designed to determine perceptions on the
current level of community participation in MPA management in GCFR and EIMR.
Fishers were asked simply to answer yes or no to questions regarding these two points.
Fishers were provoked to elaborate on their answers, as well, in order to gain a more
descriptive sense of how involved the community has been in reserve management as a
whole.

In the case of the GCFR, almost all fishers believe that reserve management is
effective; however, fishers did indicate that their interests were not being well repre-
sented regarding reserve management and that they had virtually no say in what hap-
pened in the Gulf fishery. Fishers explained that neither they nor representatives of local
fishing cooperatives were ever consulted regarding the design and implementation of the
reserve or during the past 12 years of management. One of the biggest problems cited
was that there is no control over illegal trawling. Regional officials are not likely to be
aware of this problem as they have not truly managed the reserve in the past five to
seven years and they have not sought the assistance of local stakeholders in how to
improve management.

A slightly different story is seen in the EIMR. Fishers feel that the reserve is com-
pletely ineffective as well as thinking that they do not have a say in management deci-
sions and they are not listened to when they talk to the director or the town council.
Most fishers commented in the interviews that the EIMR has completely failed and
become ineffective because it has not included local stakeholders in any aspect of re-