Editor’s note: You can draw lines on a map to “protect” an area of ocean, but does that mean that local communities and wildlife will be better off? According to new research, the answer is “not necessarily.” A new paper published in the journal Nature offers data to back up something conservationists have argued for a long time: Marine protected areas (MPAs) need adequate money and staff to reach their full potential (as a recent groundbreaking initiative in Indonesia illustrates). Two of the study’s authors — lead researcher and visiting scholar at Conservation International (CI) David Gill, and CI Senior Director of Social Science Mike Mascia — recently sat down to discuss the three questions their research sought to answer and what their conclusions mean for MPAs around the world. Mike Mascia (MM): David, the research team set out to understand how well MPAs are performing and why some perform better than others.…