Improving MPA management: Capacity building and support
WWF is working with fishers, local communities, the tourism industry, and park managers to improve management of MPAs and adjacent or overlapping fishing grounds.
This includes making sure that park managers are well equipped, informed, and trained, and that they can easily assess the effectiveness of their work. It also involves implementing the principles of ecosystem-based management into the use of marine resources in and adjacent to MPAs, such as fisheries and tourism developments.
We are also working with national governments and regional and international policy makers, pushing for new and better agreements on management practices. In addition, we cooperate with scientists to establish the baseline knowledge necessary for effective management.
Examples of work:
To help with this, WWF joined forces with IUCN-The World Conservation Union, the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce (NOAA) to form the MPA Management Effectiveness Initiative, which developed a methodology to assist park managers, planners, and decision-makers with their myriad tasks.
The initiative's work is compiled in the IUCN publication How Is Your MPA Doing? A Guidebook of Natural and Social Indicators for Evaluating Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness.
The guidebook offers an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process for the evaluation of management. The methodology was tested in 18 MPAs around the world to ensure that it would meet the needs of modern-day managers. The guidebook offers a structured way to learn from management successes and failures so that activities can be adapted and management continually improved.
WWF field staff are encouraging MPA managers across the world to use the methodology, while our policy officers are promoting its use among government planners and decision-makers. We are also promoting the guidebook through international fora such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Further information:
Further information
- Brochure: Marine parks: Effective management makes a difference (pdf)
- Factsheet: MPA management (pdf)
MPA managers in the Mediterranean
MedPAN is the network of managers of marine protected areas in the Mediterranean. The aim of the network is to facilitate exchange between Mediterranean marine protected areas in order to improve the efficiency of the management of these areas. Visit MedPAN's website
We are also working with national governments and regional and international policy makers, pushing for new and better agreements on management practices. In addition, we cooperate with scientists to establish the baseline knowledge necessary for effective management.
Examples of work:
- Helping with equipment: For example, WWF, in partnership with several West African regional environmental organizations, donated two patrol boats to protect João Vieira-Poilão and Orango National Parks, located in Guinea Bissau's Bijagos Biosphere Reserve. Regular patrols will strengthen efforts to regulate fishing access in the parks.
- Increasing capacity: For example, WWF helped with training of staff and field rangers in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, socio-economic assessment, and coral reef monitoring as part of a project to strengthen the marine management capacity of Nui Chua National Park, Vietnam.
- Promoting sustainable fishing: For example, WWF is working with a local NGO to promote traditional, ecologically sound fishing practices in Banc d'Arguin National Park, Mauritania. As part of this, a landmark agreement was reached in 2003 between local Imraguen communities and park management to stop targeted fishing of sharks and rays in the park.
- Promoting sustainable tourism: For example, WWF helped support a Tourism Carrying Capacity Study in Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Belize, in response to the negative impacts of tourism on marine life in the reserve. Following the study, reserve management and tour operators agreed to a series of actions to educate tourists and modify their behaviour in order to minimize the impacts of tourism.
- Involving local communities: For example, after an assessment of park management at Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania, showed that many local communities do not feel adequately involved in management of the park, an initiative to boost community participation and at the same time increase park surveillance was launched. Rather than creating expensive, centralized ranger units, the park management, with support from WWF and others, helped 11 villages to establish their own enforcement units. These local teams have successfully reported a series of illegal incidents.
- Involving local businesses: For example, WWF helped advocate for dive operators and tourist resorts to become members of a collaborative management authority in Bali Barat and Bunaken National Parks, Indonesia. By including the tourism sector in decisions such as park zoning, the parks are ensuring that these important stakeholders feel they a part of the decision-making process and will be advocates for the new management approach, rather than adversaries.
How is your MPA doing?
If park managers are to successfully improve the management of MPAs, they must be able to measure the effectiveness of their work so that they can adapt and improve their techniques.
However, the science and practice of managing marine reserves are fairly young. There are not yet any time-tested design tools or best management practices, although there is wide-spread recognition that they must rapidly be developed if marine reserves are to fulfil their promise as conservation tools.To help with this, WWF joined forces with IUCN-The World Conservation Union, the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce (NOAA) to form the MPA Management Effectiveness Initiative, which developed a methodology to assist park managers, planners, and decision-makers with their myriad tasks.
The initiative's work is compiled in the IUCN publication How Is Your MPA Doing? A Guidebook of Natural and Social Indicators for Evaluating Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness.
The guidebook offers an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process for the evaluation of management. The methodology was tested in 18 MPAs around the world to ensure that it would meet the needs of modern-day managers. The guidebook offers a structured way to learn from management successes and failures so that activities can be adapted and management continually improved.
WWF field staff are encouraging MPA managers across the world to use the methodology, while our policy officers are promoting its use among government planners and decision-makers. We are also promoting the guidebook through international fora such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Further information:
- Download the full publication
- Download a summary brochure (pdf)
- Browse the initiative's website
- See how methodology helped Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania
