News from the CEPA e-mail list

Assessing management effectiveness in protected areas (11/08/05)

Good morning everyone:

Here's a publication that might be of interest to many readers. "How is your MPA doing? A Guidebook of Natural and Social Indicators for Evaluating Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness" is intended to assist managers of marine protected areas (MPAs) in assessing the effectiveness of their work - a key component of effective management. Through a collaborative initiative between IUCN, WWF and NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration), this 214-page guide takes readers through a field-tested, step-by-step process for planning and evaluating the management effectiveness of MPAs. Twenty one marine protected areas from all over the world took part in this initiative so it is based very much on practical experiences. You can read more on the background to the initiative, the profiles of the 21 pilot project sites, and many other details about the initiative here http://effectivempa.noaa.gov/.

In brief, the authors set out to produce a guidebook that was both practical and applicable in a broad range of MPAs. They have developed a set of marine-specific, natural and social indicators to evaluate management effectiveness alongside a process for conducting an evaluation in the form of an easy-to-use guidebook based on the experiences of managers. The methods have been extensively field-tested at a diverse group of MPAs.

The evaluation process was formed and tested around five key principles to ensure it would meet the needs of modern MPAs, including:

* Useful to managers and stakeholders to improve MPA management;
* Practical in use and cost;
* Balanced to seek and include scientific input and stakeholder participation;
* Flexible for use in different sites and in varying conditions;
* Holistic through a focus on both natural and human perspectives.

Their step-be-step process for evaluating management effectiveness includes: 1. Selecting a set of measurable indicators that match the goals and objectives of the MPA (the text lists 42 MPA specific indicators that managers can choose from); 2. Developing a realistic work plan and timeline required to complete the evaluation; 3. Measuring the indicators and collecting necessary information to conduct the evaluation; 4. Communicating the results to decision-makers and stakeholders to adapt MPA management.

The authors are quick to point out that this is NOT intended as a summary of all the available methods for measuring effectiveness nor is it a finite set of indicators that should be used for all MPAs. They see this more as a flexible, basic and generic starting point on how to evaluate MPAs with a 'toolbox' of indicators to choose from.

The full text of this publication is available in English in PDF format in four sections here:
http://effectivempa.noaa.gov/guidebook/doc/ME_Guidebook1.pdf (776KB)
http://effectivempa.noaa.gov/guidebook/doc/ME_Guidebook2.pdf (824KB)
http://effectivempa.noaa.gov/guidebook/doc/ME_Guidebook3.pdf (823KB)
http://effectivempa.noaa.gov/guidebook/doc/ME_Guidebook4.pdf (769KB)

Best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat