237
12 Marine Protected Areas in the Canary Islands – Improving Their Governability
by taking into account the ‘step zero’ suggested by Chuenpagdee and Jentoft ( 2007 ) ,
which asks the following questions: who wants to establish the MPA; who constitutes the driving force; and how and to whom can the idea be communicated?
Often, agents external to the local areas where the MPA is discussed, such as
national or international conservation organizations, academics and state or provincial government institutions, bring the idea forward and push it through certain
agendas or mandates. But the case of La Restinga exempli fi es the relevance of the
capacity of civil society, the social side of the system-to-be-governed, for evaluating
the possibility of building a successful MPA. All too frequently feasibility studies in
this area are centered on the non-human side of the ecosystem, disregarding the
relevance of governability conditions. Of course, the existence of previous institutional arrangements with legal recognition and the intervention of the Cofradía cannot be underestimated; besides, strong leadership reinforced their role in the
process.
By examining how the MR of La Restinga was prompted, established and
implemented, we can af fi rm that it enhance “the governing system’s ability to
address the most urgent concerns” (Jentoft 2007 , 362). In some way, the MR acts
as a territorial measure that provides institutional support for the preservation of
the will of local stakeholders against new entrants or free riders who can endanger
the key resources that support the local way of living. The governing system
devised to cope with this arena has favored a slow pace of development, which
permits locals to stay in their village to work as fi shers and develop a livelihood
they enjoy. The example shows how diverse, complex and dynamic local contexts
are for artisanal fi sheries, but also how some populations are capable of using
global tendencies to assure their control of local scenarios. In this case we have
described a well-organized fi shers’ group that exerts a clear leadership in governing local fi sheries and consequently obtains government support. It is possible to
observe that the general system has improved its governability if we realize that,
despite a degree of social con fl ict, it did not disturb fi shing management or the
agreements made around the Sea of Calms.
An MPA is not simply a technical fi x. Although many scientists may only
focus on its capacity to protect ecosystems, an MPA is also a social institution that
has been devised to allocate rights, preserve uses and/or exclude users (Degnbol
et al. 2006 ; Pascual-Fernandez and De la Cruz Modino 2011 ) . Relatively small
and coastal MPAs, such as La Restinga MR, constitute a good opportunity for cogovernance, where societal parties (state, local communities and institutions,
stakeholders) join hands to build institutional arrangements and propose speci fi c
goals for the protected area (Kooiman and Bavinck 2005 ) . One of these goals may
be the conservation of marine resources, but other goals, such as preventing new
users from taking control of an area or developing new activities like tourism, are
usually also intermingled. This makes goal formation an empirical research issue
that is especially relevant for MPA governability analysis.
The Spanish legal framework that provides the cofradías with a consultative role
for fi sheries administration, and which links marine reserves with small-scale fi shers
as traditional users in the protected areas, has made this entire process possible.
12 Marine Protected Areas in the Canary Islands – Improving Their Governability
by taking into account the ‘step zero’ suggested by Chuenpagdee and Jentoft ( 2007 ) ,
which asks the following questions: who wants to establish the MPA; who constitutes the driving force; and how and to whom can the idea be communicated?
Often, agents external to the local areas where the MPA is discussed, such as
national or international conservation organizations, academics and state or provincial government institutions, bring the idea forward and push it through certain
agendas or mandates. But the case of La Restinga exempli fi es the relevance of the
capacity of civil society, the social side of the system-to-be-governed, for evaluating
the possibility of building a successful MPA. All too frequently feasibility studies in
this area are centered on the non-human side of the ecosystem, disregarding the
relevance of governability conditions. Of course, the existence of previous institutional arrangements with legal recognition and the intervention of the Cofradía cannot be underestimated; besides, strong leadership reinforced their role in the
process.
By examining how the MR of La Restinga was prompted, established and
implemented, we can af fi rm that it enhance “the governing system’s ability to
address the most urgent concerns” (Jentoft 2007 , 362). In some way, the MR acts
as a territorial measure that provides institutional support for the preservation of
the will of local stakeholders against new entrants or free riders who can endanger
the key resources that support the local way of living. The governing system
devised to cope with this arena has favored a slow pace of development, which
permits locals to stay in their village to work as fi shers and develop a livelihood
they enjoy. The example shows how diverse, complex and dynamic local contexts
are for artisanal fi sheries, but also how some populations are capable of using
global tendencies to assure their control of local scenarios. In this case we have
described a well-organized fi shers’ group that exerts a clear leadership in governing local fi sheries and consequently obtains government support. It is possible to
observe that the general system has improved its governability if we realize that,
despite a degree of social con fl ict, it did not disturb fi shing management or the
agreements made around the Sea of Calms.
An MPA is not simply a technical fi x. Although many scientists may only
focus on its capacity to protect ecosystems, an MPA is also a social institution that
has been devised to allocate rights, preserve uses and/or exclude users (Degnbol
et al. 2006 ; Pascual-Fernandez and De la Cruz Modino 2011 ) . Relatively small
and coastal MPAs, such as La Restinga MR, constitute a good opportunity for cogovernance, where societal parties (state, local communities and institutions,
stakeholders) join hands to build institutional arrangements and propose speci fi c
goals for the protected area (Kooiman and Bavinck 2005 ) . One of these goals may
be the conservation of marine resources, but other goals, such as preventing new
users from taking control of an area or developing new activities like tourism, are
usually also intermingled. This makes goal formation an empirical research issue
that is especially relevant for MPA governability analysis.
The Spanish legal framework that provides the cofradías with a consultative role
for fi sheries administration, and which links marine reserves with small-scale fi shers
as traditional users in the protected areas, has made this entire process possible.