Socio-Ecological Analysis of Human Interactions with Aquatic Wildlife in Coastal Community Systems

Abstract

The coastal and marine ecosystems are typified by complex, interdependent relationships among human social systems and ecological systems, which are becoming highly susceptible to global and local forces. These are ecosystems that have been supporting human societies for centuries but are currently being overexploited externally by anthropogenic factors, which include habitat alteration, pollution, and overexploitation of resources. All these factors have direct effects on the health and availability of aquatic wildlife. A non-linear interaction between the human activity and the dynamics of aquatic wildlife in relation to resilience, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity is studied in this study using a Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework. It is a methodology that combines ecological (e.g., the population of a wildlife, the health of a habitat) and social data (e.g., the livelihood strategies of a community, the governance structure). The statistical tests, such as One-Way ANOVA, were used to determine the differences in ecological health indicators between the zones in Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (TRNF), which is a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Philippines. It can be found that the Strictly Protected Area had much greater fish densities (35.7 CPUE) and coral health, as well as lower pollution levels than the Sustainable Fishing Area and the Buffer Zone. The statistical significance of these differences was proven by means of ANOVA tests (p < 0.05), which substantiates the usefulness of stricter protection as a factor that preserves biodiversity and minimizes pollution. The research determines the main areas of leverage to improve the sustainability, including better management of resources and more active community participation in the conservation processes. Scientific data should be incorporated with local and traditional knowledge when developing effective place-based policies that would balance between human well-being and conservation of aquatic wildlife.