Fishing and harvesting of other marine resources is the primary livelihood of many coastal people [44]. MPAs should benefit local fishers through the spillover of fish and other harvestable species [4]. Research shows that well managed MPAs can lead to fisheries benefits for local communities through increased catch and increased catch per unit effort [31], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50] and [51]. Larger scale commercial fisheries, too, may benefit from the creation of no take zones; however, since spillover tends to occur at smaller spatial scales (on average up to 800 m from MPA boundaries) the

provision of benefits to larger commercial fisheries would most likely require creation of larger MPAs or extensive networks [31] and [45]. learn more However, fisheries benefits may be unequally shared among groups within and between communities [52] and [53]. Though Roscovitine MPAs may benefit local fisheries in the long term, in the short term compensation or alternative livelihood options need to be considered since displacement of rights to access the resource can lead to short-term hardships [50], [54] and [55]. Diversification into alternative livelihoods may also reduce overall pressure on fisheries and the resource base [56]. However, care must be taken in assessing the vulnerability of proposed alternative

livelihoods to future stressors such as climate change [57] and [58]. The development of alternative livelihood programs that benefit local people is an often-advertised benefit of MPA creation that is challenging to achieve in practice. The most often suggested alternative livelihood strategy is tourism, in the form of SCUBA diving, snorkeling, boating, wildlife viewing, historical and cultural tourism, eco-voluntourism, and even recreational fishing P-type ATPase [14], [59], [60], [61], [62] and [63]. Tourism has

significant potential as an MPA financing mechanism [15], [64], [65] and [66] and may lead to economic benefits at a broader scale; however, the level of local community benefit from and involvement in tourism can be minimal. Some MPAs, such as the Great Barrier Reef MPA in Australia [67], Mendes Island MPA in the Mediterranean [68], and Tsitskamma National Park in South Africa [69], have resulted in significant increases in tourism visitation and revenue [51] and [70]. A global study of 78 coral reef MPAs found that 75% of tourism jobs were retained locally [71]. However, a lack of testing for additionality – i.e., measuring the impact of an activity or intervention through comparison with a status quo metric or reference case – does not ensure that these benefits are causally related to the MPA and not just mirroring outside changes.