Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Protecting or Pilfering? Neoliberal Conservationist Marine Protected Areas in the Experience of Coastal Granada, the Philippines

  • Published:
Human Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In recent years conservationist NGOs, policy makers, and scientists in the tropics have expressed a fascination with marine protected areas for simultaneously achieving conservation goals and economic development. Despite their popularity, MPAs often encounter serious implementation challenges due to, at least to some extent, our limited understanding of MPA processes as influenced by neoliberal ideology and practice. By resituating MPAs in debates of neoliberal conservation, this study aims to examine social and economic changes that MPAs bring about in fishing communities. Taking a fishing village in the Philippines as a case study, it shows technocratic solution seeking led to further marginalization of small-scale fishers through unequal distribution of benefits and burdens. Here it is argued that MPAs are prone to exclusionist processes of redefining the value and legitimate users of marine resources, which further limits the opportunities for small-scale fishers to participate meaningfully in resource governance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. There are over 600 interviews recorded during my fieldwork. Interview content was transcribed for over 700 pages of field notes.

  2. Fisheries Code Sec. 81 states, ‘…at least fifteen percent (15 %) where applicable of the total coastal areas in the municipality shall be identified, based on the best available scientific data and in consultation with the Department, and automatically designated as fish sanctuaries by the LGUs…’

  3. Granted that the MPA was obviously not the only political agenda during the election, defeated incumbents noticed their lower votes in coastal villages and villagers recognized the effectiveness of the anti-MPA campaign.

References

  • Agardy, T. M. (1993). Accommodating ecotourism in multiple use planning of coastal and marine protected areas. Ocean & Coastal Management 20: 219–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal, A. (2005). Environmentality : technologies of government and the making of subjects. Duke University Press, Durham.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alcala, A. C., and Garry R., R. (2006). No-take marine reserves and reef fisheries management in the Philippines: A new people power revolution. Ambio 35(5): 245–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Apistar, D, et al. (2010). Marine protected areas in southeast Cebu, Philippines. Municipality Report No. 26SNCEB10.

  • Arsel, M., and Büscher, B. (2012). Nature™ Inc.: Changes and continuities in neoliberal conservation and market-based environmental policy. Development and Change 43(1): 53–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brockington, D. (2003). Injustice and conservation: Is local support necessary for sustainable protected areas? Policy Matters 12: 22–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brockington, D. (2004). Community conservation, inequity and injustice: myths of power in protected area management. Conservation and Society 2(2): 411–432.

  • Brondo, K. V., and Bown, N. (2011). Neoliberal conservation, garifuna territorial rights and resource management in the cayos cochinos marine protected area. Conservation and Society 9(2): 91–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brondo, K. V., Bown, N., and Woods, L. (2011). Protecting Garifuna territory for whom? Gender, power, and ecotourism in the Cayos Cochinos marine protected area. Practicing Anthropology 33(4): 13–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bundy, A., and Davis, A. (2012). Knowing in context: An exploration of the interface of marine harvesters’ local ecological knowledge with ecosystem approaches to management. Marine Policy 38: 277–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büscher, B. (2010). Anti-Politics as Political Strategy: Neoliberalism and Transfrontier Conservation in Southern Africa. Development and Change 41(1): 29–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Büscher, B., and Dressler, W. (2007). Linking neoprotectionism and environmental governance: on the rapidly increasing tensions between actors in the environmen-development nexus. Conservation and Society 5(4): 586–611.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castree, N. (2008). Neoliberalising nature: the logics of deregulation and reregulation. Environment and Planning A 40(1): 131–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christie, Patrick, et al. (2003). Toward developing a complete understanding: A social science research agenda for marine protected areas. Fisheries 28(12): 22–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chuenpagdee, Ratana, et al. (2013). Marine protected areas: Re-thinking their inception. Marine Policy 39: 234–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costal Resource Management Project (2004). Completion Report: The Coastal Resource Management Project-Philippines 1996–2004.

  • Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Department of Agriculture, and Department of the Interior and Local Government (2001). Philippine Coastal Management Guidebook No.5: Managing Coastal Habitats and Marine Protected Areas. Cebu City, Philippines: Coastal Resource Management Project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

  • Davis, A., and Ruddle, K. (2012). Massaging the Misery: Recent Approaches to Fisheries Governance and the Betrayal of Small-Scale Fisheries. Human Organization 71(3): 244–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, J. F. (2005). Coastal resource management and social differences in Philippine fishing communities. Human Ecology 33(2): 147–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fabinyi, M. (2008). Dive tourism, fishing and marine protected areas in the Calamianes Island, Philippines. Marine Policy 32(6): 898–904.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fabinyi, M., Knudsen, M., and Segi, S. (2010). Social complexity, ethnography and coastal resource management in the Philippines. Coastal Management 38(6): 617–632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, J. (1990). The anti-politics machine: “development” depoliticization, and bureaucratic power in Lesotho. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, J., and Lohmann, L. (1994). The anti-politics machine: “development” and bureaucratic power in Lesotho. The Ecologist 24(5): 177–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2010). Report of the APFIC/FAO Regional Consultative Workshop “Securing sustainable small-scale fisheries: Bringing together responsible fisheries and social development”, Bangkok, Thailand, 6-8 October 2010. FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. RAP Publication 2010/19.

  • Fox, H. E., et al. (2012). Reexamining the science of marine protected areas: linking knowledge to action. Conservation Letters 5(1): 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helpern, B. S. (2003). The impact of marine reserves: Do reserves work and does reserve size matter? Ecological Applications 13: 117–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Igoe, J., and Brockington, D. (2007). Neoliberal conservation: a brief introduction. Conservation and Society 5(4): 432–449.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jentoft, S, et al. (2011). What are MPAs for: On goal formation and displacement. Ocean & Coastal Management 54: 75–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jentoft, S, et al. (2012). What stakeholders think about marine protected areas: case studies from Spian. Human Ecology 40:185–197.

  • Jones, P. J. S., et al. (2013). Introduction: An empiricial framework for deconstructing the reaities of governing marine protected areas. Marine Policy 41:1–4.

  • Kerkvliet, B. J. (1990). Everyday politics in the Philippines : class and status relations in a Central Luzon village. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemos, M. C., and Agrawal, A. (2006). Environmental governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 31: 297–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lester, S. E., et al. (2009). Biological effects within no-take marine reserves: a global synthesis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 384: 33–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, T. M. (1999). Compromising power: Development, culture, and rule in Indonesia. Cultural Anthropology 14(3): 295–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, T. M. (2007). The will to improve: Governmentality, develeopment, and the practice of politics. Duke University Press, Durham & London.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Li, T. M. (2008). Contested Commodification. In Nevins, J., and Peluso, N. L. (eds.), Taking Southeast Asia to Market. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangahas, M. F. (2003). Two Fishers' Knowledge Systems and Frontier Strategies in the Philippines. In Haggan, N., Brignall, C., and Wood, L. (eds.), Putting Fishers’ Knowledge to Work. Fisheries Centre Research Reports Vol. 11, University of British Columbia, Vancouver: 1st ed., pp. 340–346.

  • McAfee, K. (1999). Selling nature ot save it?: Biodiversity and the rise of green developmentalism. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 17(2): 133–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Municipality of Boljoon (2002a). Coastal Resource Management Plan 2002–2006.

  • Municipality of Boljoon (2002b). Comprehensive Land Use Plan Boljoon, Cebu. Planning Period: 2002–2011.

  • Oracion, E. G. (2006). A mayor and his politics for marine protected areas: a case study in the political anthropology of environmentalist discourse.”. Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society 34: 338–375.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russ, G. R., and Alcala, A. C. (1999). Management histories of Sumilon and Apo Marine Reserves, Philippines, and their influence on national marine resource policy. Coral Reefs 18: 307–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russ, G. R., et al. (2004). Marine reserve benefits local fisheries. Ecological Applications 14(2): 597–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity (2010). TARGET 11. http://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/rationale/target-11/ (accessed 11 June 2014).

  • Segi, S. (2013a). The Making of Environmental Subjectivity in Management of Marine Protected Areas: A Case Study from Southeast Cebu, Human Organization 72(4): 336-346.

  • Segi, S. (2013b). Territoriality in a Philippine Fishing Village: Implications for Coastal Resource Management, In Ono, R., Addison, D., and Morrison, A. (eds.), Historical Ecology and Marine Resource Use in the Indo-Pacific Region. Terra Australis 39, Canberra, ANU E-press, pp. 336–346.

  • Tesch, S. C. (2012). Boljoon Pride Campaign: Campaign Learning Report. http://www.rareplanet.org/sites/rareplanet.org/files/finalboljoon_campaign_learning_report.pdf (accessed 11 June 2014).

  • Thorpe, A, et al. (2011). Marine protected areas (MPAs) special feature: editorial. Environmental Management 47: 519–524.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toropova, C, et al. (2010). Global ocean protection: Present status and future possibilities. Brest, France: Agence des aires marines protégées, Gland, Switzerland, Washington, DC and New York, USA: IUCN WCPA, Cambridge, UK : UNEP-WCMC, Arlington, USA: TNC, Tokyo, Japan: UNU, New York, USA: WCS

  • Walley, C. J. (2004). Rough waters: nature and development in an East African Marine Park. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, A. T., Courtney, C. A., and Salamanca, A. (2002). Experience with marine protected area planning and management in the Philippines. Coastal Management 30(3): 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, P. P. (1998). Coastal tourism development in Southeast Asia: relevance and lessons for coastal zone management. Ocean & Coastal Management 38: 89–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The research for this paper was undertaken with the support of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grant # 410-2009-0234), and the Australian National University. I am particularly grateful to Anthony Davis and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments in the development of the manuscript. My sincere gratitude also goes to the people in Boljoon, especially those in Granada, and the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation, Inc. for their kind cooperation and engagement.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Mount Saint Vincent University, 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax, NS, B3M 2J6, Canada

    Shio Segi

  2. Department of Resource Management and Geography, Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Shio Segi

Authors
  1. Shio Segi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shio Segi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Segi, S. Protecting or Pilfering? Neoliberal Conservationist Marine Protected Areas in the Experience of Coastal Granada, the Philippines. Hum Ecol 42, 565–575 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9669-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9669-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation