Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely adopted to conserve marine biodiversity, yet their distributional impacts on resource-dependent communities remain underexplored. This study investigates socioeconomic inequality linked to MPAs in eastern Indonesia using a quasi-experimental design and multi-round household surveys of over 10,000 households across 180 coastal settlements in 10 MPAs (2010-2017). We assess poverty through objective (asset-based index) and subjective (perceived economic trends) measures. Findings reveal overall poverty reduction and persistent pre-existing inequalities by gender, age, occupation, and tenure rights. MPAs did not cause short-term economic losses or widen objective inequality but constrained perceived economic improvement, particularly among female-headed households. Community engagement moderated these effects: gender disparities were greater where female participation in groups was low. These findings suggest that promoting inclusive participation can help ensure more equitable conservation outcomes.
Le et al. (Tue,) studied this question.