A guide for planners and managers - IUCN

PART I
Institutional and Legal Framework
shape, size and the means of implementation. If, for instance, a Party intends to protect
an endemic and particularly threatened species and the goal is the protection of a single
vulnerable habitat type, the design and management of the protected area can be
relatively simple. But if the goal of the MPA is to protect a wide range of habitats or
resources, the protected area established will be more complex. In the case of protected
areas where the goal is the protection of the ecosystem and its processes, the underlying
ecology in the region dictates the outer boundaries of the area to be protected. In the
case of the Wider Caribbean, and given the objectives of the Protocol, marine protected
areas planners need to work towards conserving ecosystem integrity and thus to design
networks of marine protected areas (de Fontaubert and Agardy, 1999).
Three approaches can be adopted in designating networks of protected areas:
preserving ocean or coastal “wilderness” areas; resolving conflicts among users; or
restoring degraded or over-exploited areas. In the case of the wider Caribbean,
choosing one approach over another depends on the state of the resources one aims
to protect (and thus whether the approach is proactive, interactive or reactive). There
is mounting evidence from physical oceanography in the Caribbean that in order to
protect coral reefs in some areas, seed sources of recruits need to be identified and
protected in other areas, sometimes hundred of miles removed (Roberts, 1997). This
in turn points to the importance of adopting a multilateral approach, which is likely
to work more efficiently than the sum total of unilateral efforts that ignore the system
dynamics. The SPAW Protocol provides the framework within which a regional
network would allow for the protection at the ecosystem level.
Based on the example set by the Caribbean Regional Seas Programme, similar
protocols will also be negotiated for conventions in other Regional Seas Programmes.
Another strong protocol on MPAs was adopted in the case of the Barcelona Convention
for the Mediterranean.
World Heritage Convention. The World Heritage Convention (Convention
Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage) aims to create
international support for the protection and maintenance of sites demonstrating
outstanding cultural and natural heritage of outstanding value. It provides for
identification and protection of those sites under international law and encourages
public and official attention to the value and the need of to preserve such sites. Each
of the 146 Parties to the World Heritage Convention assumes an obligation to identify,
protect, conserve and transmit to future generations its unique cultural and natural
heritage. In addition, the World Heritage Committee selects sites nominated by
Parties to be placed on the World Heritage List. The criteria for selecting sites were
revised in 1994 to provide for identification of sites that are the most important and
the most significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity
(cf. The Convention on Biological Diversity, above). The World Heritage Convention
provides for identification of World Heritage sites within the “territory” of its Parties.
Thus, Parties may nominate sites within their internal and territorial waters (which
can extend up to 12 nautical miles from the baseline).
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