1.4 Governance and the Social-Ecological System

documented for Puerto Rico (Pittman et al. 2010, Appeldoorn 2011), as well as for other areas of the Caribbean (Mahon et al. 2011). A key objective of the CRES program was to integrate the diverse types of data and analyses on the coral reef ecosystem, to build a model of physical, biological and human (social) interactions in the ecosystem. In achieving that objective, the results of the funded research could provide a comprehensive portrait of the system’s functioning that could support the development and implementation of management strategies and actions, aimed at the conservation (or better yet, the ecosystem-based management) of the habitats and species of La Parguera, threatened by diseases (Weil et al. 2009), regional patterns of pollution and contamination (Pait et al. 2009), land-based sedimentation (Ramos 2010), resource use and extraction (Ault et al. 2008, Guénette and Hill 2009) and a diversity of stressors (Pittmann et al. 2010), all of which are also shaped by natural processes. Indeed, conditions of the La Parguera coral reef ecosystem are also the result of a historical process of resource utilization of the coast, and the ensuing systems of governance instituted in the region, as documented by CSCOR sponsored projects (Aguilar-Perera et al. 2006, Valdés-Pizzini 2009). The CCRI provided the means for the analysis of the data collected by CRES, and CCRI—as well as other programs and initiatives on La Parguera—with the objective of integrating the data in a portrait of the La Parguera’s ecosystems, including the human activity on a historical scale. Such a challenge requires the development of a comprehensive overview of the system that includes: (1) a description and delimitation of the geographical are under analysis, (2) the description of the habitats and species, (3) a statement on the current status of the resources, habitats and biodiversity, (4) an analysis of the stressors that contribute to the current condition of the systems, such as the drivers, pressures and their impacts, (5) the historical trajectory of governance that responds to those drivers and pressures, and (6) a description and analysis of the human-environment interface. Our team approached the challenge by “building” an initial and descriptive “model” of the social-ecological system of La Parguera, taking as a guideline an array of variables and concepts discussed in the literature for the assessment of ecosystems (see Levin et al. 2008). In this report we are using the tenets of the social-ecological system outlined and discussed by Chapin et al. (2009) in their work Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship: Resilience-Based Natural Resource Management in a Changing World. We use the concept of social-ecological system as a toolbox that enables us to describe and analyze the system, starting with the size, shape and boundaries of the system, as well as the heterogeneity of habitats “mosaic of subsystems” that are the building blocks of the system (Chapin et al. 2009). A social-ecological system also presents “cross-scale linkages”, that is, “processes that connect the dynamics of a system to events occurring at other times and scales” (2009). For example, governance in La Parguera is tied to the conservation policies of Spain and the United States (the Department of the Interior, to select a concrete example), that respond to a framework and guidelines devised in the 19th and 20th century, in places other than La Parguera.

A social-ecological system consists of physical components… organisms (plants, microbes and animals, including humans); and the products of human activities such as food, money, credit, computers, building and pollution. A socialecological system is like a box or a board game, with explicit boundaries and rules, enabling us to quantify the amount of materials (for example, carbon, people, or money) in the system and the factors that influence their flows into, through and out of the system (Chapin et al. 2009). The methodological approach for the construction of this social-ecological system model consisted in an intensive and extensive data mining process that primed the information produced by CRES, CCRI and other NOAA projects, as well as the search and analysis of articles, reports (gray literature), management plans, thesis, and dissertations produced over the past 50 years or so. The mandate was to rely on already produced data, and to identify the research and data gaps that could contribute to a larger and deeper effort, such as an integrated ecosystem assessment. However, our team deviated slightly from that directive, and also seized the opportunity to analyze data already collected on the stakeholders’ perceptions on the status and conditions of the habitats, gathered socioeconomic data (employment and jobs), worked on the fisheries’ landing data provided by NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and delved in the Puerto Rican archives for information on the history of La Parguera, and the governance strategies during the 1950’s and 1960’s. These actions helped explain the trajectory of the responses to drivers, pressures and impacts on the environment, that is, of the system’s path dependence, defined as the “Effects of historical legacies on the future trajectory of a system, or, more narrowly, the co-evolution of institutions and socialecological conditions in a particular historical context” (Chapin et al. 2009).

Scientific Data on the Habitats and Species

The wealth of scientific studies for La Parguera provide us with a glimpse of the different ways in which researchers have documented the characteristics of ecosystem (habitats, water quality and species), as well as the stressors and impacts on the environment’s health. Most of the studies we examined, including those supported by CRES and CCRI provide a general outlook on those variables, but do not account for fine grained documentation on indicators, and their attributes, or a quantitative correlation between human activities and specific impacts on the ecosystem. However, those studies provide, as stated before, a wide-lens perspective on a number of variables suitable for a cursory drivers pressures state indicators response (DPSIR) analysis. Pittman et al. (2010) summarized the changes in La Parguera ecosystem, and the impacts of an array of stressors in the following manner:

“Multiple interacting stressors including sedimentation, nutrient runoff, elevated sea water temperature and fishing are changing are changing the structure and functions of coral reef ecosystems of La Parguera (García-Sais et al. 2008; Ballantine et al. 2008). Deterioration in water quality due largely to increased nutrients and turbidity as a result of landbased sources has been reported as a primary threat to nearshore coral reefs in South West Puerto Rico (Pittman et al. 2010).“

In addition, these researchers underscored the “impact” of the following variables and processes: (1) redistribution of sediments due to storm events, (2) the positive relationship between turbidity and coral cover (after Bejarano-Rodríguez 2006), (3) the role of diseases and bleaching in the deterioration of coral reefs, (4) the declining trends in the population structure of herbivores and predators in the system, (5) the reduction in the amount of fish and shellfish landed (after Matos-Caraballo et al. 2005), despite a reduction in the number of fishers, due to an increase in fishing pressure (Pittman et al. 2010, see also Ault et al. 2008 for an assessment of the unsustainability of the local fisheries).