Can MPAs drive socio-psychological changes in communities?

Improving conservation is dependent upon changing human behavior. Although numerous studies have reported on the ecological and economic impacts of community-based MPAs, few have  explored the psycho-social impacts and how... [ view full abstract ]

Improving conservation is dependent upon changing human behavior. Although numerous studies have reported on the ecological and economic impacts of community-based MPAs, few have  explored the psycho-social impacts and how these may relate to behavioral change. We used two widely validated survey instruments to explore the potential social-psychological impacts and experiences of participating in the management of no-take MPAs. The Portrait Values Questionnaire differentiates between self-transcendent values (universalism, benevolence and self-direction) and self-enhancing values (power, wealth, fame and achievement). The Motivation Towards the Environment Scale differentiates between  two different types of motivation,  autonomous motivation, which is driven by internal motivation (eg. guarding an MPA because it is part of your identity as a fisherman), and  controlled motivation (eg. guarding an MPA because you are paid to do so). Autonomous motivation is correlated with greater persistence, creativity and ability to undertake more challenging tasks. Autonomous motivation is enhanced when social environments foster feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness. We interviewed 177 people in six communities with MPAs in the central Philippines. Our interviewees included people who were directly involved in the management of the MPA (n = 32), as well as people who did not participate in the MPA (n = 145). Because the six communities had MPAs of different ages (established between 1995 and 2016), we were able to explore how perceptions of values, motivations or experiences  change over time after the establishment of an MPA. We hypothesized that communities with older MPAs would have more self-transcendent values and more autonomous and less controlled motivations for engaging in the MPA. The results indicated that communities with older MPAs had higher self-transcendent values and less controlled motivation to engage in MPAs. There were no significant differences in communities with MPA’s of different ages  in feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness when engaging in MPA-related activities. Open-ended questions indicated that there was some commonality in the motivations of people to engage in MPAs, however only the participants of older MPAs indicated that the MPAs were significant events in their lives that lead to making friends and enhanced feelings of self-efficacy. These results  suggest that, communities surrounding  MPAs may  undergo socio-psychological changes that may influence behaviour and that warrant further investigation. In particular in-depth interviews are needed to understand causation and the potential mechanisms that may lead MPAs to influence values, motivations and behaviour.