| The study presented here examines the socioeconomic contexts and project strategies related to commitment for the management of community-based marine protected areas in four coastal villages of the Central Visayas, Philippines. It is an attempt to understand the experience of long-term commitment from a framework comprised of cultural ecology, political ecology, and community-based resource management. Using methods which included community and key informant interviews, site observations, collection of documents, and checklists, the study investigated six themes affecting community commitment, namely, incentive structures, local management groups, community characteristics, participatory process, education programs, and monitoring and evaluation.;Comparative assessments of the villages were used to determine commitment levels along with key factors contributing to long-term commitment. These comparisons support the development of theory in the sustainability of the commons, as well as provide suggestions for how communities and project officials can foster continued commitment among both parties and improve sanctuary management. Proposed causal models were applied to illustrate the ways in which different intervention, contingency, and mediator factors are linked together to explain how each village arrived at its present level of commitment.;The study first analyzed cultural factors affecting commitment such as perceptions of the state of marine resources, level of cohesion in the community, and existing local leadership. Understanding of marine protected area functions and benefits and the number of conflicts influence cooperation at the community level. Interview responses revealed more favorable opinions on conservation among those villages that believed their sanctuary had resulted in positive biological improvements and personal benefits and felt that their inputs for management were valued and respected. Political factors such as the relationship with the municipal government and assistance from non-governmental organizations affected commitment by determining the amount of autonomy local management groups had for devising rules and penalties and by providing communities with the technical skills and funding necessary for continued management. Economic factors included the types of resource use which affected compliance and the extra incentives that were used to encourage stakeholders to work together such as the introduction of alternative livelihoods or providing social development. Finally, the study analyzed project management factors which included the process by which project organizers engaged and involved the community in marine protected area planning, education, and monitoring and affected perceptions with regard to satisfaction with the technical skills or knowledge gained.;The findings showed that commitment was higher and longer term for two sites where six key factors figured prominently and these were, the public participatory process, relations and support from the municipal government, relations and support from NGOs, user-fees/alternative livelihoods, benefits distribution, and cohesion of the community. The most committed sites had high value perceptions, were provided with a comprehensive strategy for participation, had good communication and coordination with the municipal government, continuous assistance from NGOs, sustainable revenue-generating mechanisms, and a lower level of conflict due to more positive perceptions and more ways to resolve differences among stakeholders. |
