Mangrove ecosystems have long been established in the literature as providing important ecological and economic services such as coastal protection and water filtration, among many others (Barbier et al. 2011; Rönnbäck et al. 2007). Incorporating these values into decision making is becomingly increasingly popular, as it offers the ability to assign monetary value to a resource and thereby further validate the need for its protection. However, despite their inherent value these ecosystems continue to be lost to development and resource use, emphasizing the key role that local and national perceptions and priorities can play in conservation decisions. This study seeks to assess how local resource users value the mangrove ecosystems present in their communities. We examined the general opinions regarding mangrove ecosystems in three traditional communities in the Republic of Fiji by posing a questionnaire to community members. The study then measured these responses against demographic data such as age, gender, and education level. Additionally, these responses were compared to the number of years each participant had lived in the village, the location of the village, and the degree of exposure to outside educational material related to mangrove benefits and conservation. As traditional communities in Fiji exhibit strong gender roles, with women primarily gleaning among the mangroves and men fishing farther out along the reefs, we expected there to be some valuation discrepancies between genders. We also expected that the more direct community benefits of mangrove ecosystems would be mentioned more often and ranked higher than more abstract benefits such as climate change mitigation.
Results/Conclusions
Our study revealed that community members largely held positive views of mangroves, and believed their presence to be generally important for both environmental and economic purposes. The most widespread acknowledgement of services was related to storm protection and coastal buffering against erosion. Connections between mangroves and climate change were not as strong, with the only significant difference between villages occurring in response to the question “Consequences of climate change are a concern to my community.” Among potential influential factors we detected a relationship between exposure to outside conservation material and the values given to raising awareness about mangrove benefits and the degree of environmental importance of those benefits. This work intends to improve ecosystem management by highlighting the valuations and perceptions of resource users to decision-makers, thereby initiating open dialogue among stakeholders and offering insight into future steps for protection of local mangrove forests.