198 ARE MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN THE TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS ECOLOGICALLY OR ECONOMICALLY VALUABLE? 1 Murray A Rudd 2 , Andy J. Danylchuk , Shannon A. Gore and Mark H. Tupper 3 2 Center for Marine Resource Studies (Turks & Caicos Islands), School for Field Studies, 16 Broadway, Beverly. Email: mrudd@sfs-tci.org 3 Current address, Florida Marine Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Florida Abstract Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are often advocated by ecologists as a method of conserving valuable fish stocks while ensuring the integrity of ecological processes in the face of increasing anthropogenic disturbance. In the Turks and Caicos Islands there is little evidence that current MPAs are ecologically beneficial but there are indications that boundary changes may enhance queen conch and finfish production. Implementing boundary changes usually requires political will and, hence, quantifiable economic benefits. Assessing the value of reef fish is particularly important because they are potentially valuable for consumptive and non- consumptive purposes. We demonstrate the non- consumptive economic value of increased Nassau grouper size and abundance to the dive tourism industry through a paired comparison conjoint survey of visiting divers. Our results suggest that accounting for the non-consumptive economic value of increased Nassau grouper abundance and size may have a large impact on the economic viability of ecologically functional MPAs. Keywords: MPA economics; Nassau grouper; conjoint analysis; nonmarket valuation; paired comparison Introduction The inshore marine environment provides humans with a wide variety of ecological and economic services (Moberg and Folke, 1999) and is especially important in tropical developing countries where economic opportunities are limited. Many demersal fisheries operate at or 1 We would like to thank Sarah Carew, Erin Davies, Jen Shapira and Gail Weaver for assistance designing and testing the pilot survey. Thanks are also due to the TCI dive operators who helped distribute the surveys and gave freely of their time and expertise and to Darden Environmental Trust, who provided funding for the conjoint software. beyond their sustainable limits (National Marine Fisheries Service, 1997; National Research Council, 1999) and the demand for fish continues to grow. The management of a marine fishery is a difficult task (Botsford et al., 1997; Costanza et al., 1998) and in the tropics, where ecologically complex ecosystems are under heavy pressure from rapidly increasing anthropogenic stress and are typically managed by institutionally weak governments, the problem is exacerbated (Roberts and Polunin, 1993; Roberts, 1997; Johannes, 1998; Mascia, 2000). Traditional fisheries management has focused on the optimal exploitation of individual stocks of commercially important species despite the fact that most demersal fisheries involve multiple species. Regulatory approaches aim to control either fishing mortality and/or effort by means of quotas, gear restrictions, size limits, vessel permits, and/or seasonal closure (King, 1995). These strategies often have high transaction costs (North, 1990) and are thus ineffective in many cases (Roberts, 1997). In the tropics, the management of the inshore environment has proved problematic due to the complexity of the dynamic coral reef – seagrass – mangrove ecosystem and confounding anthropogenic pressure (Johannes, 1998). Many tropical species are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation due to the wide variety of fishing methods used in artisanal commercial reef fisheries (Munro and Williams, 1985). Grouper, for example, comprise about 10% of the total coral reef finfish yield worldwide and is amongst the most endangered family. In 1996, 21 species of grouper were proposed for the IUCN ‘Red List’; of these three species are critically endangered (Hudson and Mace, 1996). In recent years, marine protected areas (MPAs) have received much attention as an alternative approach to traditional fisheries management (Plan Development Team, 1990; Roberts, 1997; Murray et al., 1999). Ecologically, MPAs are thought to be able to simultaneously address problems that traditional management cannot. The primary goals of MPAs are to protect critical habitat and biodiversity, and to sustain or enhance fisheries by preventing spawning stock collapse and providing recruitment to fished areas (Medley et al., 1993; Johnson et al., 1999; Murray et al., 1999). From an economic perspective, the use of MPAs offers several theoretical advantages over the traditional management measures. MPAs, like terrestrial protected areas, may provide substantial non-consumptive economic use value by providing opportunities for recreation, education, scientific research (Dixon, 1993; Ruitenbeek, 1999) and indirect use value by