%0 Journal Article
%T Marine Protected Areas, Multiple-Agency Management, and Monumental Surprise in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
%A John N. Kittinger
%A Anne Dowling
%A Andrew R. Purves
%A Nicole A. Milne
%A Per Olsson
%J Journal of Marine Biology
%D 2011
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2011/241374
%X Large, regional-scale marine protected areas (MPAs) and MPA networks face different challenges in governance systems than locally managed or community-based MPAs. An emerging theme in large-scale MPA management is the prevalence of governance structures that rely on institutional collaboration, presenting new challenges as agencies with differing mandates and cultures work together to implement ecosystem-based management. We analyzed qualitative interview data to investigate multi-level social interactions and institutional responses to the surprise establishment of the Papah¨¡naumoku¨¡kea Marine National Monument (monument) in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). The governance arrangement for the monument represents a new model in US MPA management, requiring two federal agencies and the State of Hawai¡®i to collaboratively manage the NWHI. We elucidate the principal barriers to institutional cotrusteeship, characterize institutional transformations that have occurred among the partner agencies in the transition to collaborative management, and evaluate the governance arrangement for the monument as a model for MPAs. The lessons learned from the NWHI governance arrangement are critical as large-scale MPAs requiring multiple-agency management become a prevalent feature on the global seascape. 1. Introduction Coral reef ecosystems comprise less than 0.1% of ocean space [1], but they are disproportionately important with regards to the critical role they play in tropical cultures worldwide [2]. In the Pacific, the history and cultural heritage of island societies are closely intertwined with coastal ecosystems [3], and coral reefs have long provided critical ecosystem goods, services, and sociocultural values that are the basis for Pacific Islanders¡¯ livelihoods, cultural practices, and traditional lifeways [4¨C6]. The social benefits that coral reefs provide are threatened, however, by a relatively small set of proximate, or direct, human activities that include overexploitation, land-based pollution, biological invasions, disease, and threats associated with climate change [7¨C9]. The principal response to reef ecosystem decline and degradation has been an increased focus on the implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs), which reserve ocean space for conservation. MPAs serve primarily as a mechanism for ameliorating exploitation pressure, but often provide the institutional nexus by which other threats are addressed. MPAs exhibit a variety of forms but generally share a common goal to preserve resources and the ecosystems in which they are
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jmb/2011/241374/