Socio-economic impacts measurements of the of Benthic Resources Management Areas on small-scale fishing communities of northern Chile

This study seeks to answer the question of whether the introduction of the Benthic Resources Management Areas (AMERB, in Spanish) in northern Chile had difference in the socio-economic situation of the communities of fishermen who operate these areas. For this purpose two groups of small-scale fishermen were studied, namely, one with an assigned AMERB (treatment group) and another one without AMERB (control group). For both groups a set of 12 indicators was estimated on the basis of primary information, based on a previous work by Zuniga et al. (2008). The results of the statistical analysis, based on a two-way ANOVA, show evidence of a significant improvement in the institutional dimension, whereas an improvement in other socio-economic dimensions is not sufficiently clear. The results are consistent with those of other authors, in the sense that, by and large, the economic effects such as greater income and wealth from the AMERB will be experienced by the fishermen only in the long run.