Abstract

Natural resources, ecosystems and biodiversity around the world are under severe pressure from human activities, including deforestation, overfishing and habitat destruction. Conservation policies, such as protected areas, moratorium or payment for ecosystem services, have been implemented to mitigate biodiversity loss. Understanding the environmental effectiveness and potential side-effects of these policies is key to achieving global conservation objectives. In particular, several studies have shown that the effectiveness of these interventions can be influenced by spillover effects, where resource use shifts to areas outside the targeted conservation zones. This study investigates whether marine conservation interventions, could lead to spillover effects on nearby terrestrial ecosystems, particularly forests. We explore this question in the context of Madagascar, a country with a unique yet endangered biodiversity, where coastal communities strongly rely on both marine and terrestrial ecosystems for their livelihoods, and where over 200 locally-managed marine areas (LMMAs) have been implemented since 2000. Drawing from household data collected in over 40 villages within and outside LMMAs, we explore whether and through which mechanisms LMMA implementation could impact coastal forests. We then combine an original census of LMMAs and high-resolution remote sensing data to evaluate empirically the impact of LMMA implementation on coastal forest loss from 2001–2017.

Practical information