5. Improving the likelihood of success
When policies intended to protect tropical ecosystem function
are introduced in ways that do not attend adequately to social
dynamics or governance feasibility, they tend to fail (Ostrom,
2009; Cinner et al., 2012). We are proposing a substantial
reinvigoration of management, and we would be naïve to imply
that success will come easily. It will not. To be successful, the
application of holistic MSP at the scale we propose will require
very careful attention to socio-economic and governance dynamics. This is a major challenge for governments, for NGOs, for the
multinational sector, and for coastal communities. Long-term
and comparative studies have demonstrated that there is no panacea: success of management requires that appropriate technical
knowledge be applied in a context-sensitive way that builds ownership and compliance (Christie and White, 2007). Fortunately,
there now exist detailed guides for using specific management