Locating Marine Protected Areas for Turtle Conservation: Understanding Ecology and Fishers

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Targets include target goals of setting aside a percentage of marine areas as marine protected areas (MPAs).  One purpose of marine protected areas is to protect species such as sea turtles from fishing. Fishing can accidentally catch turtles and can disrupt the turtles’ progress to the beach for laying eggs. This research demonstrates that more conservation of biodiversity occurs for a given MPA area when the specific configuration, location, and enforcement of the MPA reflect both the ecological characteristics of the protected species and the economic decisions of fishers.  Motivated by Central American sea turtle conservation, this research focuses on the conservation of sea turtles through the use of MPAs that restrict fishing in places where fishers accidentally catch sea turtles and disrupt the turtles’ progress to the beach for laying eggs.