Defining a marine protected area strategy: A stakeholder perspective

When designing a new management strategy, it is widely acknowledged that different stakeholders' objectives are important, though their identification and satisfaction is often difficult to achieve. In this paper, a win–win fishery management strategy is outlined for the Marine Protected Area of the Asinara Island, in Sardinia, one of the oldest MPA in Italy. To this aim, a discrete choice experiment approach to elicit preferences is implemented. A graphical variant questionnaire, that is a block chart, is also presented in order to facilitate stakeholders' responses. The empirical findings show, that, overall the Asinara stakeholders would prefer to increase sustainable yields of commercial species, reduce inner conflicts and increase profits from the fishery.

► Asinara Island, one of the oldest MPA in Italy, as the case study. ► A discrete choice experiment to assess a win–win fishery management strategy. ► A graphical variant is applied to simplify stakeholders' responses. ► Stakeholders would prefer to increase sustainable yields of commercial Species. ► The optimal solution is a reduction in inner conflicts and increase profits.