Socio-Ecological Context

Understanding the socio-economic and ecological context helps managers design appropriate zones and rules and update plans based on observed changes. Key ecological information includes habitat types, resource conditions, and threats. Key socio-economic information involves identifying stakeholders, their resource use, and perceptions of resource conditions.

Gathering Baseline Information

Baseline data collection is ideal but not always feasible. Qualitative information from local stakeholders and local knowledge can provide important insights for management efforts. Engaging with stakeholders to map and identify local conditions, values, trends, and threats is crucial.

Social Equity

Some conservation efforts have been implemented at the expense of local and indigenous groups and created displacement, or loss of access to important cultural or economic resources. Social equity ensures that how people are treated throughout the development and implementation of conservation policy and management activities is done in a fair, inclusive, and just way. It is a critical component of management effectiveness. Social equity includes factors such as:

• acknowledging and incorporating local groups rights, culture, knowledge, values,

• maximizing benefits and minimizing burdens, 

• inclusion in decision-making, governance, management, and leadership, 

• ensuring conservation actions benefit nature and people, 

• and understanding and addressing barriers to social equity (Bennett et. al, 2021). 

Other components in this section support social equity (e.g., rights to manage, multiple knowledge sources, and stakeholder engagement). However, it is important at any stage of an MPA and within all activities to consider how social equity is currently being addressed and where there are areas for improvement.