Privately Managed Marine Reserves as a Mechanism for the Conservation of Coral Reef Ecosystems: A Case Study from Vietnam

1. Privately Managed Marine
Reserves as a Mechanism for the
Conservation of Coral Reef
Ecosystems: A Case Study from
Vietnam
Patrik Svensson, Lynda D. Rodwell and Martin J. Attrill

2. Introdution
 Coral reef ecosystems are extremely
important for many tropical coastal
countries.
o Providing food, minerals
o Bring income to local fisheries
o Protect against wave erosion
o Economic value from coral reefs
tourism.

3. Threats to Coral Reefs Ecosystems
 Recently, coral reefs ecosystems have
been declining at an alarming rate
around the world.
 Especially, coral reef ecosystems in
Southeast Asia are the most threatened
(80%)
 The main reason is because of coastal
development and fishing-related
pressures
 Pollution, overuse by human,
threatened by bottom trawling,… are
also the threats to coral reefs
ecosystems.

4. Introduction
 Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been proven
success at increasing species richness, biomass, and
biodiversity
 However, MPAs did not really help solve the problem
in Southeast Asia
 In this research, the effectiveness of Hotel Managed
Marine Reserve (HMMR) is considered
 This study is carried out in Vietnam
o Whale Island Bay (WIR)
o Whale Island Bay Peninsula (WIBP)
o Two control sites (C1 and C2) on Hon Ong (Whale Island)

5. What is Hotel Managed Marine Reserve
(HMMR)?
 HMMR is self-financing MPAs or privately managed MPAs
 It is similar to terrestrial private parks, which are well
known, very effectiveness and expanding rapidly.
 Privately managed MPAs are still insufficiently
researched.
 HMMR is necessary to initiated because of three
reasons:
o Government failure to satisfy public demand for nature
conservation
o Growing societal interest in biodiversity conservation
o The rapidly expanding ecotourism industry

6. Method
 Whale Island Resort (WIR) is situated on Hon Ong island
located in Van Phong Bay on the south-central coast of
Vietnam
 The hotel owner noticed the decline in local fishes and coral
populations.
 With no objections from the fishing families, they
established 11 ha marine reserve: Whale Island Bay (WIB) in
2001
 The second bay was enclosed to create 5 ha marine reserve:
Whale Island Bay Peninsula (WIBP) in 2005
 Local governments legally 10 years lease
 The costs needed to maintain the reserves are relatively low
(less than 10.000/year)

7. Illustration of the study area showing the 11 ha Whale Island Bay (WIB) and the 5 ha
Whale Island Bay Peninsula (WIBP) reserves, plus the locations of the two control sites
(C1 and C2) on Hon Ong (Whale Island), in Van Phong Bay, Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam.

8. Survey
 The surveyed areas include WIB, WIBP, and two control sites
(C1 and C2)
 All 4 sites were surveyed at 3m and 9m depth
 Three surveys were conducted every 6 months during a 3 week
period
 Variable distance counting is used to calculate the area
 Fish density, species richness, average size of fish, and number
of fish was analyzed by ANOVA
 The difference in fish assemblage composition between times
and sites, PRIMER5 software was used
 Significance tests for differences between site and time were
performed using ANOSIM

9. RESULT
 The amount of fish species in WIB reserve > WIBP
reserve > C1 and C2
 Densities of fish were higher at the 3 m sites
compared with the 9 m sites
 Rocky substrate cover at 3m is higher than at 9m
 Coral cover of WIB is significantly higher than
WIBP
 Coral cover is poor at each location (7% at WIB
rocky habitat and less than 1% at the other
locations and depths)

10. The fish
assemblages
between the 9 m
sandy habitats and
the 3 m rocky
habitats were
significantly
different

11. Species
richness,
density,
average size of
fish, number
of fish >15 cm
and number of
butterflyfish in
WIB is higher
than WIBP and
C1, C2.

12. Result
 Rocky habitats (3 m) have a richer fish assemblage
than sandy habitats (9 m) because of higher
numbers of Pomacentridae, Nemipteridae, and
Labridae
 Both are declined in commercially valuable fish
groups: Serranidae, Lethrinidae and Lutjanidae
 A threefold increase in Pomacentridae, whereas
Nemipteridae, and to a lesser degree Gerreidae and
Scaridae
 Fish stock and sizes are still increasing 6 years after
protection at WIB (2 years for WIBP)
 It is a good indicator that fishermen perceive the
reserve to be increasing its fish stock and possibly
producing spillover.
Family: Pomacentridae
Scientific name: Chromis chromis

13. Improvement
 Best solution to improve the marine reserve potential
is expanding both reserves to encompass the
peninsula:
o Increase protection efforts
o Increase the capability to self-sustain a larger fish
stock
o Enabling greater larval dispersal and adult movement
across boundaries
 Some fishermen suggest the hotel or government could
help compensate for their loss of fishing grounds by
providing support to develop lobster aquaculture

14. Conclusion
 This study have shown that HMMRs-
privately managed reserves, can
increase fish stocks rapidly in Whale
island, Vietnam
 If hundreds to thousands of HMMRs
lining coastal countries across the
tropics could create a network of
marine reserves
 HMMRs has positive effect on fish and
coral growth by providing refugee for
adult, larval.
 HMMRs play a part in the conservation
of the world’s coastal resources, while
alleviating financial pressure on
governments.

15. Thank you