Factors affecting support for Puget Sound Marine Protected Areas

Previous studies suggest that collaboration between management agencies and the public has the potential to increase the legitimacy of Marine Protected Area (MPA) establishment processes, thereby leading to increased support for MPAs. A social survey was conducted in communities near seven Puget Sound MPAs to examine relationships between indicators of participatory democracy and process legitimacy, as well as respondents' stated support for MPAs. Results show that, in addition to the effect of process variables, significant predictors of support include environmental beliefs, perceptions of ecological success of MPAs, and demographic variables. Taken together, these variables explain almost 70% of the variance in stated MPA support.