Socio-cultural diversity and public preferences for coral reef management options in Indonesia

Abstract Conflicting views and perceptions of how to define and resolve the issues at hand are at the heart of longstanding debates in natural resource management. As a result, a better understanding of public perceptions is vital. The study of public perception of marine conservation and management has seen an increase in recent decades. However, little research has been undertaken of the social-cultural constructs or ‘cultural biases’ underpinning peoples' perceptions. This paper aims to uncover people's cultural biases, and to investigate the plurality of their perceptions, using the case of coral reef protection. It does so with the help of the Cultural Theory pioneered by anthropologist Dame Mary Douglas. Results from a sample of 375 individuals in three different locations in Sulawesi, Indonesia, are presented that confirm Douglas' Cultural Theory. This paper concludes with the suggestion that polyrational solutions, i.e. , policy solutions that emerge from creatively combining and accommodating the different ways in which people perceive and organize social-environmental interaction, are necessary in achieving a sustainable policy outcome.