Coral reefs provide ecosystem goods and services to millions of people around the world. Traditional efforts to manage coral reefs—species by species, sector by sector—have proven insufficient to ensure resource sustainability or to protect biodiversity against these threats, spurring calls for an ecosystem-oriented approach. Central to this ecosystem approach to coral reef management are marine protected areas (MPAs). Although the number of coral reef MPAs has grown rapidly in recent years, their performance remains highly variable. Research suggests that social factors, not biological or physical variables, are the primary determinants of MPA success or failure. Efforts to design more effective coral reef MPAs are hindered, however, by the dearth of social scientific research into the human dimensions of MPA development and management. Social science research presented during the ninth International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS; in Bali, Indonesia, 2000) provides valuable insights into the human dimensions of coral reef MPAs. In this paper, findings from social science MPA research delivered at the ICRS are synthesized and several implications of these findings for coral reef MPA policy are suggested.