What is the evidence documenting the effects of marine or coastal nature conservation or natural resource management activities on human well-being in South East Asia? A systematic map protocol

Abstract 

Background:

Conservation activities and natural resource management interventions have often aimed to tackle the dual challenge of improving nature conservation and human well-being, particularly in low and middle-income countries. However, there is concern over the extent to which this dual goal has been achieved, and to what extent there are trade-offs and synergies within and between aspects of each of the goals’ targets. The amount and scope of the available evidence on the success of conservation and management interventions in both arenas has lacked documentation, for a number of reasons, including limited resources for monitoring and evaluation and the difficulty in bringing together a disparate evidence base. A systematic map was published in 2016 that attempted to provide a base understanding of the evidence base across all biomes. This protocol is for a systematic map which focuses on the effects of marine and coastal conservation and natural resource management activities on the health and well-being of coastal communities in South East Asia. This stakeholder-driven need stems from this region and biome being under increasing pressure from burgeoning demand for natural resources and the uncertain events that climatic change will bring. The systematic map described here will build and expand upon searches from the 2016 map, for relevance in the context described above.

Method:

We will undertake a search of bibliographic databases to find published literature. Supplementary searching will include canvassing key informants and searching institutional and organisational websites, where we will be looking for both published and unpublished (grey) literature. Inclusion criteria will be applied in two stages, title and abstract and full text, with repeatability checks. We will extract coded data on study design and characteristics. From the coded data we will produce visualisations and a database. The systematic map output can be used to inform on evidence gaps, and topic areas where the evidence base is ripe for synthesis.

Keywords 

Biodiversity conservation, Marine Reserve, Marine Protected Area, Human welfare, Poverty, Human development, Sustainability, Livelihoods, Human health