Convergence of Marine Protected Area Policy with Common Pool Research Theory, a case study: The Lošinj Dolphin Reserve, Croatia Peter Charles Mackelworth Department of Geography University College London Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. University of London 2007 Abstract The thesis analyses the development of negotiations for the management of the Lošinj Dolphin Reserve in Croatia. Interviews, meetings and observations were undertaken at all levels and stages of the negotiation process in order to provide a clear narrative of the development of the process. An actor orientated approach was taken to provide empirical material that could contribute to the convergence of two academic debates, common pool resource management and marine protected area policy. The Lošinj Dolphin Reserve provides a complex contextual case study with international, national, regional and local changes confusing the production of social capital to promote collective action. Development of the Croatian nation-state and its transition from State controlled to market system, coupled with conflicting issues of regional identity and local island context, and has significant impact on levels of trust and social integration. Finally a local non-government organisation provides the motivation for the designation of the Reserve and facilitation between the varying stakeholders and relevant authorities. The new paradigm of participation and co-management in protected areas for participative conservation provides for the overlaps within both commons and protected area literature. It is suggested that common pool resource scholarship can provide a framework for the development of marine protected areas, with certain contextual caveats. In turn marine protected area case studies can provide insights into other fields of commons research, particularly complex common pool resource theory. 2 Dedication Dedication A promise I once made… …’to someone just around the corner’ Death is nothing at all… I have only slipped away into the next room… I am I and you are you… Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you have always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effect, without the ghost of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same that it ever was, there is absolutely unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am just waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner… All is well. Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918). 3 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements This is perhaps the most difficult part of the thesis, the fear and knowledge that brief thanks are not enough for the help that many people give to PhD students along the tortuous journey towards hand-in. In the field, first of all to the Blue World crew, which time by time reside on a small island in the Adriatic. Draško Holcer and Caterina Fortuna, the backbone of the project for so long and at such cost, also my good friends. Annika Wiemann and Nikolina Rako who have carried the torch of the ADP and I hope will continue to do so into the future. Andrea Borić and Jelena Jovanović who have held the fort throughout the winter on the island and kept me on the straight and narrow. Finally, Luca Giannoni for holding my hand in many of my first interviews, good luck wherever you go. To all of these guys who are not only my colleagues but also my friends and even my surrogate family, my thanks. To the islanders and other interviewees that contributed to this study, this thesis would be nothing without their stories. At the academy, many thanks to my two supervisors, Peter Jones and Jacquie Burgess, obviously patient and understanding of an unusual student in an unusual situation. To my friends Caroline Bressey, Nick Mann, Tamsin Cooper, Andrew Harris that have seen it all before, been there done that and relayed many other experiences that helped me along the way. Again thanks to Caroline, Angie, and Chris for proof-reading without having to be put under too much duress. Thanks for supporting me at home and away, good memories in both places. To my girlfriend who entered unwittingly into a threesome of me, her, and the PhD, and yet managed to remain positive throughout. And finally to my family, who have supported me throughout morally, financially, and physically, with out your support this would have remained an idea, a dream, or a fragment of my imagination. To those around the corner, it’s done, it’s finished the promise is complete, all is well. 4 Contents Table of Contents Abstract 2 Dedication 3 Acknowledgements 4 List of Tables 9 List of Figures 10 List of Boxes 11 List of Plates 12 List of Abbreviations & Acronyms 13 Chapter 1 Introduction 15 1.1 Research Aims & Questions 21 1.2 Thesis Structure 22 Chapter 2 Common Pool Resources & Marine Protected Areas 24 Introduction 25 2.1 Development of CPR Theory 27 2.2 Subtractability & Excludability 37 2.3 Design Principles 30 2.3.1 Resource Characteristics 32 2.3.1.1 Small Size 32 2.3.1.2 Well Defined Boundaries 32 2.3.1.3 Low Levels of Mobility 32 2.3.1.4 Possibilities of Storage of Benefits from the Resource 33 2.3.1.5 Predictability 33 2.3.2 Group Characteristics 35 2.3.2.1 Small Size 35 2.3.2.2 Clearly Defined Boundaries 35 2.3.2.3 Shared Norms 37 2.3.2.4 Past Successful Experience - Social Capital 37 2.3.2.5 Appropriate leadership – young and familiar with changing 39 external environments, connected to the local traditional elite 2.3.2.6 Interdependence among Group Members 40 2.3.2.7 Heterogeneity of Endowments, Homogeneity of Identities 40 & Interests 2.3.2.8 Low Levels of Poverty 41 2.3.3 The Relationship between Resource System Characteristics & 42 Group characteristics 2.3.3.1 Overlap between User Group Residential Location & Resource 42 Location 2.3.3.2 High Levels of Dependence by Group Members on Resource 42 System 2.3.3.3 Fairness in Allocation of Benefits from Common Resources 42 2.3.3.4 Low Levels of User Demand 43 2.3.3.5 Gradual Change in Levels of Demand 43 2.3.4 Institutional Arrangements 44 5 Contents 2.3.4.1 Rules are Simple & Easy to Understand 44 2.3.4.2 Locally Devised Access & Management Rules 44 2.3.4.3 Ease of Enforcement of Rules 45 2.3.4.4 Graduated Sanctions 45 2.3.4.5 Availability of Low Cost Adjudication 46 2.3.4.6 Accountability of Monitors & Other Officials to Users 46 2.3.5 The Relationship between Resource System & Institutional 47 Arrangements 2.3.5.1 Match Restrictions on Harvests to Regeneration of Resources 47 2.3.6 External Environment 47 2.3.6.1 Technology 48 2.3.6.1.1 Low Cost Exclusion Technology 48 2.3.6.1.2 Time for Adaptation to New Technologies related to the 48 Commons 2.3.6.2 Low Levels of Articulation with External Markets 48 2.3.6.3 Gradual Change in Articulation with External Markets 49 2.3.6.4 The Role of the State 49 2.3.6.4.1 Central Governments should not Undermine Local Authority 50 2.3.6.4.2 Supportive External Sanctioning Institutions 50 2.3.6.4.3 Appropriate Levels of External Aid to Compensate Local 51 Users for Conservation Activities 2.3.6.4.4 Nested Levels of Appropriation, Provision, Enforcement, 52 & Governance 2.4 Applying Critical Enabling Conditions to MPAs 53 2.4.1 Resource Characteristics 54 2.4.2 Group Characteristics 55 2.4.3 Institutional Arrangements 56 2.4.4 External Factors 58 2.5 Concluding Remarks 60 Chapter 3 Methodology & Case Study 61 Introduction 61 3.1 Methodology 62 3.1.1 Archival Research 63 3.1.2 Ethnographic Approach 64 3.1.2.1 Interviews 65 3.1.2.2 Participant Observation 67 3.1.3 Positionality & Reflexivity - The Role of Blue World NGO 70 3.1.4 Researcher Identity, Positionality & Transparency 71 3.1.5 Data Analysis 73 3.2 Placing Lošinj Island 75 3.2.1 Geography 77 3.2.2 History 79 3.3 Concluding Remarks 87 Plates 88 Chapter 4 The Lošinj Dolphin Reserve: A Resource System 89 6 Contents Introduction 89 4.1 Development of the Lošinj Dolphin Reserve: The Role of 90 Tethys, 1987-2000 4.2 The Role of Blue World 2000-2005 96 4.3 The Science Case: the Critical Habitats Report 2003 100 4.3.1 Current Knowledge 107 4.4 Resource Characteristics 109 4.4.1 Small Size 111 4.4.2 Well Defined Boundaries 112 4.4.3 Low Levels of Mobility 114 4.4.4 Possibilities of Storage of Benefits from the Resource 116 4.4.5 Predictability 117 4.5 Concluding Remarks 119 Chapter 5 Lošinj Islanders: The Primary Appropriator Group 121 Introduction 121 5.1 Contemporary Croatia: The view from Lošinj 122 5.2 Group Characteristics 126 5.2.1 Small Size 128 5.2.2 Clearly Defined Boundaries 129 5.2.3 Shared Norms 130 5.2.4 Past Successful Experience 132 5.2.5 Appropriate Leadership 135 5.2.6 Interdependence among Group Members 137 5.2.7 Heterogeneity of Endowments, Homogeneity of Identities 138 & Interests 5.2.8 Low Levels of Poverty 142 5.3 Relationship between Resource Characteristics & 143 Group Characteristics 5.3.1 Overlap between User Group Residential Location & 143 Resource Location 5.3.2 High Levels of Dependence by Group Members on 144 Resource System 5.3.3 Fairness of Allocation of Benefits from Commons Resources 146 5.3.4 Low Levels of User Demand 147 5.3.5 Gradual Change in Levels of Demand 148 5.4 Concluding Remarks 152