Public Perception of the Benefits of Mangroves in Qurayyat, Oman: Implications for their Sustainable Utilisation and Management

Z Al-Afifi¹, D Raffaelli² and B Stewart³

1. Senior lecturer, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Muscat, Oman.
2. Professor, University of York, York, UK.
3. Reader, University of York, York, UK.

Abstract: The environment delivers a wide range of services that contribute to societal wellbeing, but their sustainable use is dependent on local utilisations, behaviours and perceptions of their benefits. This is particularly true for mangroves in Oman which are targeted to play a key role towards the country’s sustainability goals (100 million mangrove trees will be planted as part of Oman’s Blue project). This study examines the public perceptions of the value of the Qurayyat natural mangrove ecosystem for delivering both cultural services and the public’s current and future views of the site’s sustainable management. A participatory approach was used whereby locals were interviewed to elicit their views and preferences, including participatory mapping, with more open-ended questions to provide a high level of flexibility and space for the respondents to express their views as well as a snowball sampling technique to identify potential respondents. The results suggest that there has been a downward shift in the supply of provisioning services over time, and that mangroves are the second-most preferred landscape in Qurayyat where a broad variety of activities are practiced that are highly valued. Respondents were very willing to be involved in decision-making regarding the management of the ecosystem. Analysis of these preferences and behaviours can be fed into a human-centric approach to management plans for the site.

Pages: 33 – 52 | Full PDF Paper