Linking Ecology with Social-Economics: The Monetary Value of Marine Reserves – A Meaningful Political-Ecological Debate Using ‘the Power of Money’ and Its Real-World Influence

Abstract

Human influences have fundamentally shaped the marine environment and driven global environmental changes. However, estimating the value of nature conservation and creating actions to support sustainable development is still challenging. As the economy is a short cycle in the nature-human framework, humans often underestimate the importance of ecosystems, which has caused global environmental degradation and management failures. Current ecosystem services valuation frameworks oversimplify the ecosystems' complexity and overlook the ecosystems' cumulative benefits and long-term synergies. We need to understand the incremental benefits of ecosystems better and recognize how ecosystems support the economy and how the economy could support ecology. This thesis utilizes a small Marine Reserve (MR) as an example to estimate marine conservation values. MR can be an effective conservation method, but research on the economic effects of MR is in infancy. This thesis is based on a real-world, well-managed complex coastal ecosystem of an MR named the Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve (CROP MR), New Zealand. This thesis employs an ecology-based monetary valuation approach based on the biophysical and cumulative benefits of ecosystem services in MR. Chapter 2 explores the fishery recruitment effects and represents MR's monetary value to illustrate MR's contribution to local/national economies. Chapter 3 assesses the currently available tools to evaluate the monetary value of ecosystem services for MR. Chapter 4 draws emerging interests in the carbon economy into the marine space by measuring kelp forests' carbon storage value under MR's habitat recovery function. This thesis extends the literature by emphasizing marine conservation values and illustrating restorative marine economy opportunities. This thesis argues that partial monetization of marine values can help to raise awareness of the importance of marine conservation - to people and government agencies. Estimating the values of ecosystem services of MR is an excellent example of how it is possible to suspend struggles between ecological and economic imperatives to reach compromises and collective support conservation. Together, the three chapters suggest that it is possible to utilize relatively partial measures of values to generate investment in marine conservation - to invest by establishing MR, alternatively restoring environments, and implementing policy/management approaches that restrict extractive use of marine environments.