Good governance is widely seen as a prerequisite for effective natural resources management in the context of environmental decline and increasing anthropogenic pressures. Few studies quantitatively examine governance principles, or explore links between perceptions of community members and the governance that shapes their behaviour. Comparative work, spanning multiple sites and contexts, is rare. This paper measures community members' perceptions of governance in twelve coral reef-dependent communities across four countries in the Wider Caribbean Region. In relation to established principles of 'good governance', multiple correspondence analysis indicates that perceptions can be reliably described using two themes, institutional acceptance and engagement. These explain over 50% of variation in individual perceptions. These measurable themes provide an indication of the social fit of governance arrangements, and have implications for expected outcomes, including support for management and compliance with regulations. Cluster analysis provides unique empirical evidence linking structural characteristics of governance to community perceptions; four of five good governance indicators were present in communities with positive perceptions. Results suggest a combination of supportive structures and processes are necessary to achieve governance systems positively perceived by community members. Findings are relevant to those seeking to design management systems and governance structures that are appropriate to local circumstances and will engender stakeholder support.

SUMMARYGlobal environmental changes present unprecedented challenges to humans and the ecosystems upon which they depend. The need for interdisciplinary approaches to solve such multidimensional challenges is clear, however less clear is whether current attempts to cross disciplinary boundaries are succeeding. Indeed, efforts to further interdisciplinary approaches remain hampered by failures in assessing their scope and success. Here a set of measures examined the interdisciplinarity of the environmental sciences and tested two literature-based hypotheses: (1) newer and larger disciplines are more interdisciplinary; and (2) interdisciplinary research has lower impact factors than its counterparts. In addition, network analysis was used to map interdisciplinarity and determine the relative extent to which environmental science disciplines draw on alternative disciplinary perspectives. Contrary to expectations, age and size of a discipline had no effect on measures of interdisciplinarity for papers published in 2006, though metrics indicated larger articles and journals were more interdisciplinary. In addition, interdisciplinary research had a greater impact factor than its more strictly disciplinary peers. Network analysis revealed disciplines acting as ‘interdisciplinary frontiers’, bridging critical gaps between otherwise disparate subject areas. Whilst interdisciplinarity is complex, a combination of diversity metrics and network analysis provides valuable preliminary insights for interdisciplinary environmental research policy. The successful promotion of interdisciplinarity is needed to help dispel commonly perceived barriers to interdisciplinarity and create opportunities for such work by increasing the space available for different disciplines to encounter each other. In particular, the networks presented highlight the importance of considering disciplinary functioning within the wider context, to ensure maximum benefit to the scientific community as a whole.

A considerable challenge to coastal managers in tourism settings is to provide visitor opportunities to observe pristine coral reef systems, while simultaneously protecting them from tourist impacts. Most dive area management strategies are designed around the concept of restricting numbers of visitors, in a variety of ways, or diverting their attention from pristine areas, to "sacrificial" sites, such as artificial reefs. For this to be economically and socially effective, as well as ecologically successful, further information is required, indicating to what level such policies are acceptable to divers. Insight into the relative importance of a variety of attributes preferred by dive tourists, and trade-offs acceptable to divers, are required. Established interviewing and attitude assessment techniques were used to identify which pristine coral reef area attributes and associated resort facilities most greatly contributed to ecotourist enjoyment at a Fijian dive resort. No significant increases in diver enjoyment were detected at sites representing "pristine reef," compared to more degraded inner lagoon sites. Additionally, managerial and social factors were found to contribute significantly more to tourists' overall trip enjoyment than ecological and environmental factors, and quality of the diving experience. Initial indications are that diver satisfaction can be achieved with less than pristine reefs, and site substitution policies should be accepted by divers. Management strategies attempting to offset degraded dive attributes by enhancing alternative aspects of the holiday environment are also likely to succeed. Effective implementation of policies based on these results has the potential to result in more efficient economic exploitation of reef resources, minimal economic loss, and increased dive industry sustainability.

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This guide on performance monitoring and evaluation (evaluation) is intended for practitioners responsible for planning and managing marine areas. Practitioners are the managers and stakeholders who are responsible for designing, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating marine management plans. While its focus is on the performance monitoring and evaluation of MSP, planners and managers should know how to incorporate monitoring and evaluation considerations into the MSP process from its very beginning, and not wait until a plan is completed before thinking about how to measure “success”. Effective performance monitoring and evaluation is only possible when management objectives and expected outcomes are written in a way that is measurable, either quantitatively or qualitatively.