A guide for planners and managers - IUCN

PART III
Case Histories of Marine Protected Areas
14. Ras Mohammed National Park, Egypt:
A Comprehensive Approach
The coral reefs of the Southern coast of Sinai in Egypt are recognized as one of
the most popular and spectacular areas for SCUBA diving. In 1983, the peninsula
of Ras Mohammed (both the land and the surrounding coral reefs) at the southern
tip of Sinai was recognized by the Egyptian Government as a Marine Protected Area
(MPA). A few years later, the rapidly encroaching tourism led the Egyptian government
to request a study in order to determine the feasibility of, and the technical assistance
for, the development of an upgraded National Park.
Establishment
The recommendations of the feasibility study led to the upgrading of the Marine
Protected Area to a National Park (NP; IUCN Category II), thereby adding a terrestrial
component to the protected area, increasing its area from 97 km 2 to 233 km 2 , the
establishment of a coastal zone management plan and a monitoring programme to
evaluate and modify management measures (Pearson, 1988). Subsequently, technical
assistance from the European Union (EU) led to the establishment of an initial
development phase which provided essential equipment, recruited and trained local
staff and introduced a basic monitoring programme. One of the objectives of the
management in place at Ras Mohammed was to show that all development in the
area was resource dependent and that the degradation of coral reefs and other marine
ecosystems would limit the area’s economic potential.
In 1992, access was limited and no development allowed within the designated
Park boundaries. The Nabq and Ras Abu Galum Multiple Use Managed Areas, in which
traditional grazing and fishing by Bedouins is permitted but no development allowed,
consists of 1951 km 2 of marine and terrestrial habitats. More recently (1998), the
Protected Areas Network has been further extended to include both the central
mountainous area of southern Sinai (St Katherine Protectorate), the Taba Natural
Monument and the remaining coastal waters of the Gulf of Aqaba as far as the
border at Taba. The Southern Sinai Protectorates Network, as the protected areas system
is now referred to, presently consists of 9,736 km 2 of linked marine and terrestrial
habitats, covering 43 percent of the 260 km of Egypt’s littoral zone on the Gulf of Aqaba
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