Five case studies from around the world illustrate key lessons in integrating top‐down and bottom‐up approaches to stakeholder and community engagement in the planning and implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs). Community resistance to MPA proposals from centralized agencies can be addressed through effective participatory processes with consistent engagement over time, transparency, and the incorporation of benefits for communities. Indigenous communities in particular are becoming key actors of some conservation initiatives (e.g. MPAs) and recognition of their inherent rights, traditional knowledge and deep connections to the marine environment can become the foundations for collaborative management of MPAs. True participation requires empowerment for engagement, and this in turn requires education and capacity building for local people to get involved in the process of planning, implementing, and managing MPAs. How bottom‐up and top‐down approaches are used should consider the scale of the MPA (e.g. small vs. large), the geographic scenario (e.g. coastal vs. remote), the level of anthropogenic influence, the conservation objectives (e.g. species, habitats, ecosystems), the political and governance context, and specific cultural conditions, such as the presence of indigenous communities. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Human population growth since the mid-1900s has been accompanied by an unsustainable use of natural resources and a corresponding impact on terrestrial and marine biota. In response, most states have established protected areas as tools to decrease biodiversity loss, being Chile one of the signatories of international conservation agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the 2010 Aichi Targets. This study reviews the Chilean protected areas that have been created to date, with an emphasis on the existence and effectiveness of management plans for all terrestrial and marine protected areas. Effectiveness was individually evaluated using two filters: 1) the age of the management plan and 2) the first four steps of the Protected Areas Management Effectiveness (PAME) methodology recommended by the IUCN. We show that 84 out of a total of 145 protected areas (PAs), and only five out of a total of 20 marine protected areas (MPAs), have management plans. Only 12% (N = 16) of PAs are effectively managed; while in the marine realm, no MPA has an effective plan. Our results show the lack of both the effectiveness of and updates to the management plans for the vast majority of the national territory and raise the following question: is it sustainable to continue adding protected areas to the national system even though it is clear that the existing support is insufficient to meet the minimum requirements for full implementation?

Marine protected areas have been scaling up from small areas located in coastal waters to large‐scale marine protected areas in remote areas, partly in response to the international agenda to conserve 10% of marine and coastal areas. Chile has made considerable progress in the designation of large‐scale marine protected areas in its oceanic islands with varying degrees of top‐down and bottom‐up processes, scientific knowledge and interplay among institutions. The process of designating the multiple‐uses marine protected area in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) involved interplay among scientific research, capacity building, local knowledge and collaboration between sectors, which contributed to the community transformation toward marine conservation in Rapa Nui. A recent increase in scientific research on the marine ecosystems was transmitted to stakeholders and the local community via capacity‐building actions. The knowledge‐based empowerment of the Rapanui population (inhabitants of Rapa Nui) involved the definition not only of the objectives, the extension and the conservation goals of the Rapa Nui multiple‐uses marine protected area, but also of the implications beyond the designation, such as issues of governance, management and financing. The implementation of the Rapa Nui multiple‐uses marine protected area will test local and Rapanui government relationships. The continuous science‐knowledge‐based dialogue in a strengthened relationship between the government and the local community in a ‘process of relating’ might be the pathway to future effective conservation efforts and successes.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been associated with dramatic changes in adult populations of shallow benthic community-structuring species in northern Chile. However, early ontogenetic stages are more likely to be affected by physical processes associated with ENSO (e.g. increased temperature, upwelling), potentially reflected in differences in recruitment intensity. We evaluated recruitment and abundance of juveniles and adults of the major benthic community-structuring groups (kelps, sea urchins, sea stars, crabs and rockfish) during a period affected by La Niña followed by a period of neutral conditions. Recruitment was several times higher during neutral conditions for sea urchins and sea stars. Lower recruitment during La Niña was probably caused by offshore larval transport caused by increased upwelling. Recruitment of crabs tended to be higher during neutral conditions, but this varied among sites. In contrast to invertebrates, kelp abundance seemed to be controlled by post-settlement processes, as reflected by fewer kelp juveniles after La Niña when the abundance of herbivore fishes strongly increased. Our results highlight the importance of evaluating the effects of ENSO at early ontogenetic stages rather than on adult populations, which are less likely to be affected in an upwelling-dominated system.