Engaging Communities in Marine Protected Areas: Concepts and Strategies from Current Practice
Although marine protected areas (MPAs) in the United States are typically planned and implemented through a top-down, legislative approach by federal or state government agencies, marine resource managers are increasingly incorporating more bottom-up, community engagement strategies as part of their professional “toolkits.” Managers engage local communities for a wide variety of reasons, from raising awareness about the existence or conservation goals of an MPA to recruiting volunteers and citizen scientists.
