Demographic characteristics and scales of agreement and disagreement over resource management restrictions

Conflicts over restrictions in common-pool resources management (CPRM) institutions are expected to arise from variations in human values, perceptions of justice, and the disparate demographic scales of benefits and costs. We... [ view full abstract ]

Conflicts over restrictions in common-pool resources management (CPRM) institutions are expected to arise from variations in human values, perceptions of justice, and the disparate demographic scales of benefits and costs. We hypothesized and tested a series of propositions about how the demographic scale and context of proposed restrictions would influence African coral reef fisheries. We surveyed the preferences and perceived benefits of 1849 people in 89 fish landing sites for six common restrictions of increasing severity. Variability in perceived benefits within and between neighboring communities was evaluated to determine how perceptions changed with the severity of the proposed benefit/costs restriction scale, perceived benefits, disparities between beneficiaries, and national context. Within community variability declined strongly with perceived benefit but was either weak or not significantly associated with the neighboring community’s variation. Within community variation was less than between-community variation and increased with human population density, economic, and the governance influences of the nations. There was generally broader scale agreement on the benefits of weaker restriction strength options of minimum sizes of fish and allowable fishing gears and more disagreement on stronger restrictions of species, time, and space restrictions. restriction strength and perceived fairness of benefits. Reduced variability was strongly associated with less disparity in benefits between local and government beneficiaries. These findings indicate potential conflicts between neighboring communities for most but particularly the strongest restrictions. This can lead to defection and communities complying with only the weakest restrictions and behaviors of the least-compliant neighbors.