AUTHOR=Sánchez-Jiménez Astrid , MacMillan Douglas , Wolff Matthias , Schlüter Achim , Fujitani Marie 

TITLE=The Importance of Values in Predicting and Encouraging Environmental Behavior: Reflections From a Costa Rican Small-Scale Fishery

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.543075

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2021.543075

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Encouraging people's pro-environmental behaviors is an objective of Education for Sustainable Development. In the context of small-scale fisheries, unsustainable fishing practices are compromising the integrity of coastal communities and the ecosystems. Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is an ecosystem modelling software that presents interactions and changes in the food web as a result of fishing. Despite the multiple applications of EwE in fisheries management, it is unknown from a quantitative perspective whether the application of EwE trophic modeling in environmental education processes and management produces effects on norms and ecological beliefs, and if it alters behavioral intentions of the participants receiving ecosystem modeling information. We conducted a behavior change intervention with gillnet fishers, to compare antecedents of pro-environmental behavior between participants who received an ecosystem-based intervention (lectures containing EwE models; treatment) and those who received lectures that didn’t involve EwE (control). Based on theories of environmental psychology, we used a pre-post survey control design, to evaluate changes between control/treatment, and to assess the influence of psychometric constructs and fishing characteristics on the behavioral intentions to support sustainable fishing measures and owning a fishing license (revealed behavior). Personal norms and values were significant at explaining management measures’ support, along with some fishing characteristics (e.g. fishing site). Deliberating about possible future scenarios (via EwE-modeling) helped reduce uncertainties, increasing legitimacy and a perceived behavioral control (PBC) to support measures. Currently licenses aren’t granted under any ecological criteria, and although altruistic-biospheric values scored highly before the intervention began, due to mistrust and high illegal-unlicensed fishing, fishers may be underestimating how much others care about the environment. Value-oriented and ecosystem-based educational interventions may assist in an effective redesign of the licensing system and encourage fishers' intentions to support sustainable measures. Our research indicates the importance of behavior interventions that teach about the impacts of fishing in the ecosystem while helping participants to perceive themselves as capable of implementing actions (PBC) and stimulating the expression of biospheric-altruistic values towards a trust restoration process. Redirecting human behaviors to reconnect with ecosystem resilience can be a leverage point for sustainability and for the compliance of small-scale fisheries management measures.