Coral Reefs: A Reef Resilience Toolkit Module

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Halong Bay has become a popoular destination in Vietnam. Traditional fishing villages have adapted to tourism by offering kayak rentals and refreshments to visitors. Local women sell live seafood from small boats. Photo © Kathleen Reaugh/Marine Photobank

In earlier sections of this Toolkit, diversity was discussed in the context of biological ecosystems. Here, we discuss diversity in terms of social resilience. This principle explains the importance of nurturing diversity for social resilience, recognizing that diversity provides insurance for uncertainty. Diversity of knowledge, livelihood (both income generating and subsistence activities), institutions and human opportunities, and economic options all contribute to sustainability and adaptive opportunity.1

In relation to social-ecological systems, diversity can be of two kinds:2

Functional diversity — the number of functionally different groups present in a system
Response diversity — the diversity of types of response to disturbance

Functional and response diversity allow a community to renew, innovate and spread risks brought about by management actions, such as establishment of an MPA network.

Social Resilience in Madagascar’s MPAs

Using socioeconomic monitoring data, Cinner et al.3 examined aspects of social resilience at the scale of the social-ecological system in a MPA that encompassed one to five communities. They gathered information using several techniques, including household surveys and interviews with key informants and community leaders. Several aspects of local-level social resilience in Madagascar’s MPAs appeared quite desirable. Flexibility in both livelihood strategies and the formal institutions governing marine resources in the form of resource-habitat taboos appeared to provide some ability to adaptively manage marine resources. Involvement in community organizations and decision making was high relative to other countries in the region. However, several apparent weaknesses in social organization, if addressed, could help move the social-ecological system of the sites toward a more desirable configuration. Both households and communities lacked assets. Poor feedback of scientific information to communities was a key factor contributing to low levels of trust between park staff and communities. Low levels of formal education inhibited both the recognition of the mechanisms that affect marine resources and the perception of ways to improve the condition of those resources. There were also poor links between local and larger-scale institutions.

Diversity of livelihood — Diversification of livelihood means that community members can switch to other occupations when protected areas or restrictions are established, during times of seasonality and fluctuating markets. In the case of MPA establishment, some degree of exclusion and restrictions on resources used by humans usually occurs. Communities that have a portfolio of livelihood options are able to adapt and operate under different conditions.

Resource dependency — Resource dependency is the reliance of a community on a range of natural resources. This influences social resilience and the ability to cope with shock, particularly in the context of food security, income stability and coping with hazards. Resilience depends on the diversity of the ecosystem as well as the institutional rules which govern the social systems. Governance and management frameworks can spread risk, and in effect build resilience, by diversifying patterns of resource use and by encouraging alternate activities and lifestyles. Resource dependency is a very important indicator for sensitivity, which is a contributing factor of vulnerability.

Fishers in Tavenuni, Fiji: Resource dependency influences the social resilience of a community, particularily in the context of food security. Photo © Stacey Kilarski