A guide for planners and managers - IUCN

128 MARINE AND COASTAL
PROTECTED AREAS
Box I-14. Problems with Conventional Funding Sources for Marine Protected Areas
It is becoming more and more difficult to raise the cash necessary to maintain
protected areas from conventional funding sources. Both government and donor budgets
are falling in most countries, tourism is often highly variable, and there is stiff competition
for private investment funds from other sectors of the economy which are seen to
generate higher, and more immediate, returns than marine conservation.
The case of Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park epitomises many of these
funding constraints. Throughout the decade, as public sector budgets in Kenya have fallen
and expenditure has been rationalised and focused on priority areas for social development
such as health and education, central government subventions to environmental
conservation activities have been falling. The amount of programme and project aid being
granted to Kenya from external donors has also decreased substantially. Since 1990 all
national parks in Kenya have been under the management of the parastatal Kenya
Wildlife Service, meaning that as well as being accorded a much greater degree of
autonomy, parks have been expected to become increasingly financially self-supporting.
However, relying almost entirely on tourist revenues for income, the Kenya
Wildlife Service has been hit hard by the drastic downturn in tourism to Kenya over the
last 5 years which has resulted from political unrest and civil insecurity in key tourist
areas of the country, including the coastal strip. As a whole the Kenya Wildlife Service’s
revenue base has been undermined, and budget allocations to Kisite-Mpunguti have also
fallen substantially (from an average of US$ 400,000 a year at today’s prices during the
late 1970s to only US$ 20,000 in the last financial year (Emerton, 1999)). Conventional
funding sources are proving inadequate for Kisite-Mpunguti, which is having difficulties
financing even its most basic management operations.
Over recent years a wide range of more innovative financing mechanisms have
started to be used to raise funds for marine conservation (Box I-15). These are mainly
based on capturing as real income some of the economic values associated with the
consumption of marine goods and services. Although many groups and individuals
benefit from marine goods and services, for which they would be both willing and
able to pay, mechanisms do not exist by which they can be charged for their
consumption, or can invest in the provision of marine goods and services.