![]() Mangroves are a critical nursery habitat for many reef fish species. Previous TNC research showed that the presence of logging operations was a strong driver of bumphead population decline on nearby reefs. Sediment washes down from deforested hillsides into the mangrove lagoons, which are the nursery grounds for many reef fish species. Hamilton suspects that any protection provided by the MPAs is swamped by the negative impacts of commercial logging operations near the lagoon. “In Roviana Lagoon there was tremendous historical abundance, low human population, and moderate fishing pressures - and yet there has been enough land degradation and targeted fishing that, despite management efforts, both of these species can be classified as critically endangered.” “But unfortunately this study is a definite example of where MPAs are not working for these two flagship species,” says Richard Hamilton, director of TNC’s Melanesia program. They are often designed to protect culturally and commercially important reef fish species, like the bumphead parrotfish or the humphead wrasse. The Big PictureĬommunity MPAs are a popular fisheries management tool across the Pacific, because they incorporate traditional ownership, or tenure, of local peoples into management plans for marine resources. Those results show that populations of adult bumphead parrotfish and humphead wrasse declined by over 70 percent between 20, with bumphead parrotfish populations declining by 92 percent since the 1980s. He also incorporated the interview data on bumphead parrotfish into a model that allowed him to estimate their abundance in the mid 1980s, just as the fishery became commercialized. Chris Brown, a marine ecosystem modeler at Griffith University, modelled the decline in both species from underwater survey data. In 2018 the researchers returned to re-survey the sites, and to ask fishermen about their current maximum catches of bumphead parrotfish. Since then, these areas have been protected by community-managed MPAs. They also interviewed fishermen, asking them about their maximum catches of bumphead parrotfish in both the 1980s and early 2000s. TNC scientists and local partners first surveyed the sites in 2000, counting populations of two important fish species, bumphead parrotfish and humphead wrasse. Published in Coral Reefs, this research evaluates the effectiveness of locally-managed marine protected areas (MPAs) in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. But new research shows that this method is failing to protect two important reef fish species in the Solomon Islands. ![]() ![]() Small, community-managed marine protected areas are a common conservation tool throughout the Pacific. ![]()
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