Cultural tourism provides an additional source of income for the local community. Guided tours promote community traditions, art of fishing and wealth of natural resources. However, if not well controlled and based upon with strong values and rules, recreational fishing can be unsustainable and a source of local conflict.

The Consorcio Por la Mar R.L developed guided visits to learn about the culture of being a small scale fisher in Costa Rica.

The fishers adopt voluntary standards for responsible fishing based on FAO recommendations. The Local Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries helps to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine resources and was applied once the Marine Responsible fishing area was recognized.

Each fisher records their daily fish catches, methods and site locations and feeds the information into a database. This information aids in monitoring the abundance and diversity of key species and serves as an important management tool. Data are analyzed by technicians/scientists, and the results are discussed with fishermen

MRFA are defined as “areas where fishing activities are regulated to secure the sustainable use of resources in the long term and where the conservation, use and management action of INCOPESCA can count with the support of coastal communities and other institutions”. (Executive Decree No. 35502 of October 1st 2009).

This new legislation recognized the fishers effort for a collaborative governance model for the management of the marine territory.

The local community developed a Fisheries Management Plan based on their traditional knowledge. A commission, composed of members of the fishing cooperative and governmental authorities, is responsible for the further management of the area.

A participative process with artisanal fishers of Coope Tárcoles R.L., government authorities represented by INCOPESCA and CoopeSoliDar R.L. as a facilitator of the process, was initiated for the development of the MRFA fishing management plan.

Artisanal fishers and semi-industrial trawlers was agreed that semi-industrial trawlers would stay for 3 miles from the coast. During 2009 semi-industrial trawlers made the proposal to move out from water areas with a depth of 15 meters or less but requested that artisanal shrimp fishers had also to respect this no fishing zone so that the white shrimp population could recuperate faster.

There was also an agreement for a one-year ban on shrimp captures by artisanal and commercial fleets, which was transformed in year 2012 by the INCOPESCA Board of Directors into a national decree (AJDIP-193) as stipulated by the MRFA decree.

After the ban, Coope Tárcoles R.L. requested permits for shrimp fishing. This request was backed up by the INCOPESCA research department and approved and the shrimp semi-industrial trawlers were requested to permanently stay out of the agreed 15 meter zone. Later, shrimp trawlers agreed to move out of the area 5 nautical miles from the coast to support sustainable shrimp populations.

The policy that regulates the recognition of a Marine Responsible Fishing Areas (MRFA) is under the control of INCOPESCA, the National Fishing and Aquaculture Institute. In 2009, CoopeTárcoles R.L requested the Costa Rican government to recognize a MRFA in their fishing territory, which was approved in 2011.

The recognition of this area and fishers rights helps to conserve both the marine biodiversity and the cultural identity of the local community.

Different communication tools increase the audience and options to share information and deliver transparency on issues that related to natural resources in order to make more equitable decisions and in order to get support from the different stakeholders, such as the residents, the private sector and the local governments.

The results of the ecosystem services valuation can be used in applications to raise awareness, support decision-making, develop sustainable financing mechanisms, for spatial planning and for damage assessments. With scenarios, the study can assess certain policy issues, such as the economic loss if natural assets are damaged by, for example, sewage run-off. The applications answer questions relating to current environmental management issues on the islands. Stakeholders and local experts provided input determining the most relevant management issues to be used in local relevant scenarios.

Conducting surveys with tourists or residents creates understanding of local issues, such as waste management, coastal development as well as insight in usage of ecosystem service. Moreover, a willingness-to-pay (WTP) for nature conservation can be established through Choice Experiments. Valuation of priority ecosystem goods and services, also by other means then WTP, are combined to arrive at an estimate of the Total Economic Value (TEV) following the TEEB framework. Results are used in applications, such as scenarios, valuemaps and decision support systems.

Through a workshop stakeholders start to understand how powerful valuing ecosystem services can be as a tool to address relevant policy decisions. Exercises during the workshop based on local cases generate information about local ecosystems, ecosystem services, beneficiaries, stakeholders and issues. Participants start to understand how they can use this tool to create important insights for all-inclusive decision-making. Moreover, during the research, continue to communicate with all stakeholders through newspapers and radio.