This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Kirsten L. Oleson to work with Dr. Pieter van Beukering, Vrije University in the Netherlands and with Dr. Harifidy Ralison at the World Wildlife Fund in Madagascar.
In its 5-year National Action Plan, Madagascar includes a goal of increasing conservation-oriented marine protected areas (MPSs). In Madagascar, MPAs seek to mitigate threats from local activities, including destructive fishing and tourism. But climate change is projected to cause significant declines in coral health and ecosystem services. Oleson?s research focuses on ensuring that Madagascar?s strategy for protecting its marine resources adequately considers climate change?s various projected impacts, human adaptive capabilities, and ethical concerns arising from differential consequences. The work supports the strategic targeting of conservation efforts by investigating the question: What are the economic costs, benefits, and equity implications of alternate coastal zone management policies in the face of global climate change (GCC)? To address this, she asks four sub-questions: (1) How does Madagascar?s current MPA strategy take into account GCC? (2) Given evidence of GCC resistance of some coral populations, how well does Madagascar?s MPA system protect critical regions and habitats and what areas should be prioritized in the future? (3) What are the marginal costs and benefits of alternate MPA strategies? (4) Upon whom do the costs and benefits of alternate MPA strategies fall? Partners for this project include numerous non-governmental organizations involved in conservation in Madagascar, two local universities, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
