The California Marine Life Protection Act: A balance of top down and bottom up governance in MPA planning

Emily T. Saarman and Mark H. Carr

Marine Policy, 2013, vol. 41, issue C, 41-49

Abstract: California recently established a state-wide MPA network that extends over 1900km of coastline and includes 124MPAs totaling nearly 2200km². Designing and implementing such an MPA network in a populous democratic state with a large number of ocean users required a balance of top-down and bottom-up governance strategies. A legal mandate for MPAs identified the goals for the network and stipulated that scientific knowledge should form the basis of MPA design, while political necessity led to a participatory stakeholder-driven MPA design process. At the time of publication, the oldest region of the network was just five years old, so it remains to be seen how the governance strategies employed in MPA planning will evolve to meet the challenges of long-term MPA management.

Keywords: MPA governance; MPA design; MPA network; Stakeholder participation; Ecosystem protection; Science-based management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:41:y:2013:i:c:p:41-49

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2013.01.004

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