Fig 1.
The study site which is Tun Mustapha Park.
This study site is located along the international boundary between Malaysia and Philippines. Participants for this project were recruited from five community groups residing in the marine park. The spatial data was created using QGIS 3.3.3 based on the public dataset by Natural Earth (http://www.naturalearthdata.com/) and is for illustrative purposes only.
Fig 2.
Workflow of this study in summary.
Table 1.
Categories of ecosystem services used here that are related to the marine ecosystem in TMP.
Categories, definitions and examples of the ecosystem services were introduced to participants before the start of activities to ensure they could provide information suitable for this study. The definitions and examples follow the glossary provided by TEEB [3].
Table 2.
Socio-demography of participants who joined the participatory activities.
Fig 3.
Participants responded to the questions in participatory mapping.
Fig 4.
Digitised maps resulted from participatory mapping showing marine-associated habitats, ecosystem services and perceived threats in Tun Mustapha Park.
(a) provisioning services. (b) cultural services. (c) regulating and supporting services. (d) perceived threats and pressures to the habitats and services. The information for each category of ecosystem service provided by the participants is considered as the benefits obtained from the marine ecosystem in TMP. The map was magnified to show the details. Note that there is a small island at the south of Maliangin Island called Maliangin Kecil Island which is surrounded by corals and seagrasses according to participants. LRFT stands for live reef fish trade. The map was created using QGIS 3.3.3, of which the distribution of coral reefs was referred to the public dataset by Ocean Data Viewer (https://data.unep-wcmc.org/datasets/1) and is for illustrative purposes only.
Fig 5.
Photographs portraying environmental aspects of participants’ life associated with cultural, provisioning, regulating and supporting services.
(a) Mangrove stumps were washed ashore during wet season and can be used for craft. (b) Unregulated cutting and pollution could cause the extinction of mangrove trees. (c) Unique looking roots of mangrove trees could strengthen the soil structure and prevent sea erosion at shore. (d) This river at a mangrove was experiencing erosion and becoming shallower, hence causing population decline of its inhabitants. (e) The river at this mangrove was drying up and have poor water flow, causing the trees unable to grow and hence died. (f) The poor waste disposal system had caused the accumulation of rubbish at this shore, causing discomfort to the villagers. (g) Cuttlefish is a local favourite seafood which used to be abundant in coral reefs surrounding the Banggi Island but is rarely caught nowadays due to uncontrolled fishing activities.
Fig 6.
Photographs portraying sociocultural aspects of participants’ life associated with cultural services.
(a) This scenic view of sunset makes the shore at Banggi Island an attraction for domestic and international tourists. (b) This shore at Banggi Island is where fishers dock their boats and families do recreational activities. (c) This Floating Coral Bar near Malubang is a tourist destination in TMP. (d) Supirak Island is a rock island that has a local folklore and potential for tourism. (e) Batu Berunsai, which is another rock island near Malubang, is a tourist destination and is related to a local dance. (f) An isolated community residing in mangroves near Marudu Bay that should be shared with knowledge of sustainable natural resource use.
Fig 7.
Photographs portraying economic aspects of participants’ life at Malubang village associated with cultural and provisioning services.
(a) This collage shows a shore that was a destination for tourists to do recreational activities, hence providing business opportunities for villagers. (b) This shore was a destination for tourists and villagers to do recreational activities such as swimming and photography besides being source of seafood. (c) This sea near Malubang was a source of livelihood for villagers as they fish here.
Table 3.
Ecosystem services depicted by the photographs, accompanying captions and responses to questions by researchers during group discussion as resulted from the Photovoice activity.
Note that the information for each ecosystem services provided by the participants should be considered as the benefits they received from the ecosystem services.