Informing the design of territorial use rights in fisheries from marine protected area theory

Territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs) can be an effective tool for the management of coastal resources, and interest in their use is increasing around the world. However, there is little guidance on how to design them. Fortunately, other marine spatial tools, such as marine protected areas (MPAs), have already addressed questions similar to those now central to successful TURF design. We propose that well-established lessons from MPA design should provide a strong basis for the development of design criteria for TURFs. In this paper, we review the MPA literature to inform the design of TURFs based on the similarities and differences of these 2 marine spatial management tools. We found that TURF design can obtain important lessons from MPA theory, for example on how to diminish the effects of environmental and human disturbance. In particular, the nascent idea of creating TURF networks can benefit significantly from the literature on MPA networks.