To gain a better understanding of the actual protection afforded reefs in the region, the Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean Project asked experts to evaluate the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Particularly with the growth of tourism and fisheries in coral reef areas, MPAs are an important management tool for conserving coral reefs. Many Caribbean nations have established parks or protected areas to safeguard marine biodiversity while helping to maintain economically important marine resources. [a] The Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean Project identified 285 designated MPAs across the 35 states and territories of the Caribbean region (see Appendix A: Physical, Social, Economic Statistics for the Caribbean Region, Table A5: Management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Wider Caribbean).

Because compiling detailed information on a region-wide basis is very difficult, the MPAs were assessed on only four broad criteria: existence of management activity, existence of a management plan, availability of resources, and extent of enforcement. Combined, these criteria were used to generate a simple measure of management effectiveness. Of the 285 parks, only 6 percent were rated as effectively managed and an additional 13 percent were judged to have partially effective management. Nearly half were rated as having an inadequate level of management and, therefore, offered little protection to the resources they were designed to protect. The level of management was unknown for about one-third. This lack of information most likely reflects a deficiency in human and financial resources. Thus, although about 20 percent of the region’s coral reefs are contained within MPAs, [b] only about 5 percent of the region’s reefs are within MPAs with effective or partially effective management.

Common reasons for MPA failure are lack of long-term financial support and a lack of support from the local community, which can usually be traced to a lack of local involvement in planning and a failure to share financial or other benefits from protection. Sustainable financing for MPAs must be developed if they are to function well in the long term. [c] Only a handful of parks in the Caribbean directly generate income. For example, Bonaire Marine Park introduced an annual diver admission fee of US$10 in 1992, which currently raises 60 percent of the park’s budget, and Saba Marine Park raises 70 percent of its income through diver fees. Revenues from a yacht-mooring system in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) exceeded US$200,000 in 2002, which allows the BVI Marine Conservation Program to be completely self-sustaining. [d]

Notes

a. J.A. Dixon, L. Fallon Scura, and T. van’t Hof. 1993. “Meeting Ecological and Economic Goals: Marine Parks in the Caribbean.” Ambio 22 (2-3): 117-125.

b. The scale of the data and the degree of completeness of the MPA data set limit the analysis. Many MPAs are represented only by points, not their actual spatial boundaries, so their extent had to be approximated. Thus, this analysis provides only a rough estimate based upon the best available data.

c. B. Kelleher, C. Bleakley, and W. Wells, A Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. Volume II: Wider Caribbean, West Africa and South Atlantic (Washington DC: The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, The World Bank and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), 1995).

d. J.C. Smith Abbott (Director, BVI National Parks Trust), personal communication, 12 January 2004.