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Measuring the willingness of dive tourists to pay fishers not to fish in a no-take zone

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Ecosystems provide an array of direct and indirect services to human populations. In tropical marine areas, such ecosystem services often include food provision (i.e., fishing) and ecotourism (i.e., diving). In cases where there are conflicts between these services – such as where fishers want to fish but divers want to see abundant, biodiverse ecosystems – examining the economics of various alternative policy solutions may be useful. The various ecosystem services provided by tropical marine areas worldwide – such as food provision through fishing, or ecotourism opportunities through diving – are under increasing use in general. Sometimes such uses are unsustainable or conflict with one another. One way to help ensure the continued provision of ecosystem services is through establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs), where uses are ideally planned and managed with sustainability in mind. More than 300 km off the coast of Brazil is the small andd gorgeous archipelago of Fernando de
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A brand new method to infer stream fish abundance Interview with Prof. Taal Levi Prof. Taal Levi is an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University and has one of the most diverse research profiles that we’ve ever seen. His studies range from disease ecology to seed dispersal across all sorts of environments, from the Amazon Forest to Alaska. His main peculiarity is perhaps the use of empirical data to address applied issues, such as wildlife overexploitation, overfishing, climate change and anthropogenic impacts in general. Now, one of his projects is focusing on estimating stream fish abundance using quantification of environmental DNA. Environmental DNA (or eDNA) is the technique of detecting DNA found in the environment, like water, soil or even from stomach contents, instead of trying to extract it directly from an individual. Here he talks about this interesting and important project (we know how important it is to have reliable fish abundance measures for fishery managemen
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Tax havens, illegal fishing and Amazon deforestation

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Cayman Islands, Panama, Belize, Turks and Caicos and other Central American small countries may remind some of us of little pieces of paradise, but may also remind others of tax havens and corruption. However, perhaps a question that nobody had (dared to?) asked before was about a possible link between tax havens and environmental degradation. A study recently published in Nature Ecology and Evolution gives us a good sense of how these two things may be much more related than you would have ever guessed so. Tax havens are known for providing politically neutral and reliable arenas for institutional innovation compared with settings dominated by political turbulence and institutional legal vacuum. At the same time, however, some negative effects of these jurisdictions are evident, such as their role in ‘money laundering’ and funding of illegal activities, and the risk of amplified global systemic financial risks created by the lack of financial transparency and oversight . But how abo
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Sustainable seafood consumption in Brazil: An interview with Daniele Vila Nova

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Marine fishery resources have worldwide economic, social, and ecological importance. These fisheries provide a relevant part of protein intake and income for people in the developing world, being linked directly and indirectly to the fishing sector. As the global population increases, the demand for fish increases which leads to a growing number of vessels, diversification of fishing gear, and improvements of catchability. All of these innovations are leading to crashing fish stocks and dramatically changing marine ecosystems. However, the growing number of vessels, the diversification of fishing gear and the improvements in catchability, coupled with population growth and increased demand for fish in recent decades made overfishing a global reality, not only affecting fish stocks, but entire marine ecosystems. This urgent situation should leads to the promotion of forms of sustainable resources, which should encompass fisher all the way to the final consumer.             There are ma
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Water scarcity: an already systemic issue

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Imagine yourself in a very hot day or after spending two hours working out at the gym. Would you get thirsty? It is just amazing to have an iced glass of water to refresh and hydrate our bodies or to take a long shower to relax after a working day. Water is so essential that no living being could survive without it. But have you ever thought that this resource could end or about the problems water scarcity could bring to the ecosystems and human lives as well? Could you imagine our blue planet without the blue part? Unfortunately, water shortage is a reality and we must understand what causes it and its consequences so that we could try to mitigate and avoid worse problems. The amount of freshwater available in our planet is limited, which puts a cap at how much we can use of it. However, such threshold is likely to be close due to over-exploitation and human’s current unsustainable water use practices. Global demands for water have been increasing since the 1950s, whereas the freshwat
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