Relational Seascapes: Human Wellbeing and Marine Protected Areas in Tanzania

As an important form of conservation programming, marine protected areas (MPAs) are now positioned as a key global strategy to protect and conserve marine biodiversity. This context has resulted in a rapid increase in the number and geographic extent of MPAs worldwide. While the benefits derived from MPA establishment are often optimistically framed as beneficial for both marine biodiversity and human wellbeing, this assumption is challenged for several reasons, including the fact that current science and practice frequently fail to account for the full impact of MPAs on human wellbeing. Current science and practice remain focused on a few easily quantifiable indicators in the material dimension. This context poses a danger that the context specific, place based aspects of wellbeing, such as social relations and connections to the marine environment, will not be examined, nor reported in evaluation and decision-making processes related to MPAs. It also reflects a growing need for improved in-depth studies on what wellbeing does and does not mean for particular people, in particular places, to better reflect the diversity in social and cultural constructions of human wellbeing (White 2016).

This dissertation contributes to growing social science scholarship on MPAs and human wellbeing by employing a qualitative, case study design to examine how one’s relational wellbeing can be transformed and challenged by an MPA. It does this by focusing on select small-scale fishing communities living in Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP), located in southern Tanzania. Data collection occurred over 2019-2020 and primarily included 140 semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed, translated, and qualitatively coded for analysis. To explore the range of relationships important to one’s wellbeing, this dissertation engages with relevant literature in development studies, human geography, as well as social science research in fisheries.

Results demonstrate the complex and dynamic nature of human wellbeing, including the fundamental role culture, place, and history have in shaping diverse understandings and constructions of wellbeing. Accounts of wellbeing were found to be woven into the material and emotional realities of everyday life, illustrating how the material, subjective, and relational dimensions of wellbeing are inseparable and co-constituting. Results also show how the construction of one’s wellbeing is formed in and through a history of interactions with others and the environment, which in turn shaped one’s relational values, associated norms and behaviors, and perceptions of the MPA.

Overall, this dissertation contributes to a growing body of social science literature that investigates how one form marine conservation programming, MPAs, interacts with human wellbeing. It presents an empirical case study that advances understanding of the social and cultural constructions of wellbeing, as well as the diverse and nuanced ways people connect with others and their environment. Results from this dissertation have the potential to address persistent tensions between obtaining international targets for marine conservation and the need to ensure the implementation of equitable and just MPAs, including securing the rights of coastal communities.