Assessing the Effectiveness of FCZs

Presented by: Shaara Ainsley (shaaraainsley@fishbio.com) | Fisheries Biologist

Erin Loury (erinloury@fishbio.com) | Fisheries Biologist

FCZ assessments examine how well management is achieving its goals

and objectives

Why Assess the Effectiveness of FCZs?

Why Assess the Effectiveness of FCZs?

• Considerable effort in establishing FCZs, but this alone does not guarantee success• Assessment is necessary to

understand if FCZs are performing as desired• Situations may change over time

and errors may be made; assessment can help learn from experience

Assessment is a Key Step in Fisheries Management

“As [FCZ] objectives are defined and agreed upon by the local community, it is important that the community members are involved in periodically reviewing the effectiveness of regulations in meeting these objectives.”

Benefits of Effectiveness Monitoring

• Benefits to the Community:• Knowledge production to inform co-management• Efficient use of enforcement and committee efforts

• Benefits to the CSO Partners:• Donors want to see effectiveness monitoring• Assessments can identify strengths to build on and

weaknesses to improve upon

• Benefits to Government:• Contributes to successful co-management • Multinational agreements with targets (e.g., Sustainable

Development Goals, Convention on Biological Diversity Targets – global and national)

What is an “Assessment”?

• Assessment is a process of gathering information on how well an FCZ is performing• Assessments should be conducted

regularly, not just one time• Assessment can be done through

measuring indicators of effectiveness• Indicator: A specific qualitative or quantitative variable

directly linked to management goals and objectives used to measure the status and trends of management effectiveness

Examples of Existing Assessment Frameworks MARINE

Pomeroy et al. 2004“How is your MPA doing?”

TERRESTRIALRodriguez-Rodrigues and

Martinez-Vega 2012“System for the Integrated Assessment of

Protected Areas (SIAPA)”

Goals and objectives are based on the stakeholder’s “vision” of an

ideal FCZ

Developing Goals and Objectives

• Goals: Broad statements about the long-term conditions, like a mission statement

• Objectives: specific, realistic, measurable descriptions of what will be accomplished to reach the goals• Example

• Vision: The aquatic biodiversity of the FCZ is healthy and being protected, and fisheries resources outside of the FCZ are abundant

• Goal: Individual species are protected inside the FCZ

• Objective: Probarbus spp. abundance is increased or maintained

• Goals and objectives may differ for each FCZ and should be specific to context

• Often developed through a participatory process• Gather stakeholders and define a shared “vision” of a

successful FCZ• Use this vision to develop a list of goals• Use list of goals to develop specific objectives

• Regularly re-examine and revise as necessary through the assessment process

Developing Goals and Objectives

Clear goals and objectives are an essential starting point for selecting

indicators of effectiveness

Indicators are measurements that provide evidence for

whether goals and objectives are being met

Criteria for Useful Indicators

From Pomeroy et al. (2004)

Criteria Definition

Measurable Able to be recorded and analyzed in quantitative or qualitative terms

Precise Defined the same way be all people

Consistent Not changing over time so that it always measures the same thing

Sensitive Changing proportionately in response to actual changes in the attribute or item being measured

Simple Simple indicators are generally preferred to complex ones

Example: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country, and it is considered an indicator of economic growth

Indicators should be easy to communicate and interpret in non-technical language to communities

Socioeconomic

Ecological

Governance

How do you use an indicator?

Goals and Objective

s

- Biophysical Indicators

- Socioeconomic Indicators

- Governance Indicators

Metric/Measuremen

tMethodology

Focal Species Abundance is Increased

or Maintained

Catfish Abundance

Number of Catfish per

Trap per Hour

Trap Surveys

How do you use an indicator?

Food Security is

Enhanced or Maintained

Perceptions of Fish and

Other Aquatic

Food Availability

Opinions of FCZ

Effects on Aquatic

Food Availabilit

y

Household

Interview Surveys

Effective Legal

Structures and

Strategies for

Management Maintained

Enforcement Coverage

Number of FCZ Patrols Undertaken Per Month

Review Patrol

Logbooks; Interview

Enforcement Teams

Goal/ Objective

Indicator Metric/ measurement Methodology

Conclusions

• Considerable effort goes into establishing FCZs, but establishment alone does not ensure successful conservation and management of resources• FCZ Assessments can benefit communities, CSO

partners, and the government• Clear goals and objectives are essential for selecting

appropriate indicators • Useful indicators should be: measurable, precise,

consistent, sensitive, relevant, simple and understandable • Indicators are used to measure FCZ success towards

achieving its ecological, socioeconomic, and governance objectives