Integrating Community Perspectives into Reef Health Eco-Audits in Puerto Morelos, Mexico

Abstract

Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, is a coastal port town with a community whose livelihoods are closely tied to the health of the Puerto Morelos Reef National Park (PMRNP) marine protected area. The local economy depends heavily on both tourism and fishing, making reef health central to community wellbeing. However, most existing literature and assessments of the reef’s condition focus primarily on biological monitoring and governmental consultation. In collaboration with Healthy Reefs for Healthy People (HRHP), an environmental non-governmental organization that focuses on conservation of the Mesoamerican reef. HRHP produces periodic reports on reef health and management measures; reef health monitoring results are found in their “Report Cards”, while evaluation of recommendations and implementation are in their “Eco-audits”. This project focuses on establish a baseline study to integrate community perceptions into the Eco-Audit framework, specifically. Through semi-structured interviews with fish harvesters and dive guides, I gathered perceptions on the key pressures affecting the reef, local management practices, and local fish abundance, among other topics. The intended outcome of this project is to establish a process that explores how community perspectives can be integrated into reef health monitoring practices, using HRHP’s Eco-Audit framework as the primary tool. By combining biological data with local knowledge, this research will ultimately provide a preliminary assessment of how the PMRNP and the surrounding MPA align with community priorities, values, and management goals.