Coastal fishing communities rely on goods and services provided by marine ecosystems to satisfy their social and economic needs; however, continued exploitation of these ecosystems has degraded and threatened them making it imperative to implement conservation and management strategies. Management strategy impacts on local communities lifestyle is a function of dependence on the resource targeted by these strategies. The sustainable livelihoods approach can be used to measure resource dependence. Using this approach we designed an index to explore marine resource dependence of communities linked to the Los Tuxtlas reef system located in the south of the state of Veracruz. Thirty-eight surveys were applied across three communities. Our results suggest the communities we surveyed are moderately dependent on marine resources. Of the variables we measured, allotment ownership, subsidies, formal social capital, work independence, economic burden and fishing labor relevance contributed the most to marine resource dependence; while informal social capital helped reduce it. Understanding how resource dependence is formed in rural communities is fundamental to develop management and conservation strategies that achieve resource conservation goals and meet community needs.

沿海渔业社区依靠海洋生态系统提供的商品和服务来满足其社会和经济需求；然而，对这些生态系统的持续开发已经退化并威胁到它们，因此必须实施保护和管理战略。管理策略对当地社区生活方式的影响取决于对这些策略所针对的资源的依赖。可持续生计方法可用于衡量资源依赖。使用这种方法，我们设计了一个指数来探索与位于韦拉克鲁斯州南部的 Los Tuxtlas 珊瑚礁系统相关的社区对海洋资源的依赖。对三个社区进行了 38 项调查。我们的结果表明，我们调查的社区对海洋资源的依赖程度中等。在我们测量的变量中，分配所有权、补贴、正式社会资本、工作独立性、经济负担和渔业劳动力相关性对海洋资源依赖的贡献最大；而非正式的社会资本有助于减少它。了解农村社区如何形成资源依赖是制定实现资源保护目标和满足社区需求的管理和保护策略的基础。