Marine protected area communities: temporal context, conceptual essence, and case studies

The construction of marine protected areas (MPAs) and community development have an interwovenness connection. It is an urgent issue to study how to promote harmonization between them. This study employs policy analysis and literature research methods, dissecting the issue from the dual lenses of ecological civilization system reforms and empirical MPA development practices, thereby elucidating MPA communities′ policy stance and functional roles. Examining communities′ natural spatial and social functional attributes reveals prevalent issues in the marine community concept, including unclear definitions, inaccurate concepts, and insufficient applicability within marine ecological conservation. The concept connotation and analytical framework of the "marine protected area community"were proposed in this study according to the theory of integrated marine management, the theoretical basis of the Social-Economic-Natural Complex Ecosystem, and the policy needs of ecological civilization. This framework divides MPA communities into in-boundary communities and out-of-boundary communities (adjacent communities and neighboring communities), illuminating the interaction and "dependency-conflict" relationship between MPAs and communities. The systematic analysis of Changdao Island MPAs showed that the proposed framework could provide clear ideas for community governance in MPAs. This study provides a systematic analysis method to straighten out the relationship between MPAs and communities, bearing theoretical and practical significance for building a community management system and promoting the modernization of governance in MPAs.