Abstract Protected areas are the primary management tool for conserving ecosystems, yet their intended outcomes may often be compromised by poaching. Consequently, many protected areas are ineffective ‘paper parks’ that contribute little towards conserving ecosystems. Poaching can be prevented through enforcement and engaging with community members so they support protected areas. It is not clear how much needs to be spent on enforcement and engagement to ensure they are frequent enough to be effective at conserving biodiversity. We develop models of enforcement against illegal fishing in marine protected areas. We apply the models to data on fishing rates and fish biomass from a marine protected area in Raja Ampat, Indonesia and explore how frequent enforcement patrols need to be to achieve targets for coral reef fish biomass. Achieving pristine levels of reef fish biomass required almost year-round enforcement of the protected area. Surveillance of the protected area may also be enhanced if local fishers who support the reserve report on poaching. The opportunity for local fishing boats to participate in surveillance was too small for it to have much benefit for total reef fish biomass, which increases slowly. However, specific functional groups of fish have much higher population growth rates and their biomass was predicted to increase markedly with community surveillance. We conclude that budgets for park management must balance the cost of conducting frequent patrols against supporting alternative activities, like education to build community support. Optimized budgets will be much more likely to achieve ecological targets for recovering fish biomasses and will contribute to fiscal sustainability of protected areas.

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实施海洋保护区以实现恢复鱼类生物量的生态目标的成本

摘要 保护区是保护生态系统的主要管理工具，但它们的预期结果往往会因偷猎而受到损害。因此，许多保护区是无效的“纸公园”，对保护生态系统的贡献很小。可以通过执法和与社区成员互动来防止偷猎，以便他们支持保护区。目前尚不清楚需要在执法和参与上花费多少，以确保它们足够频繁以有效保护生物多样性。我们开发了针对海洋保护区非法捕鱼的执法模式。我们将这些模型应用于印度尼西亚四王群岛海洋保护区的捕捞率和鱼类生物量数据，并探讨了实现珊瑚礁鱼类生物量目标需要多频繁的执法巡逻。实现原始水平的珊瑚鱼生物量需要几乎全年对保护区进行执法。如果支持保护区的当地渔民报告偷猎行为，也会加强对保护区的监督。当地渔船参与监测的机会太小，对珊瑚礁鱼类总生物量增长缓慢，无法从中受益。然而，鱼类的特定功能群具有更高的种群增长率，预计它们的生物量会随着社区监测而显着增加。我们得出的结论是，公园管理预算必须平衡进行频繁巡逻的成本与支持替代活动的成本，例如建立社区支持的教育。