Content uploaded by Michael James C Crabbe
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Michael James C Crabbe on Nov 27, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
287
Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 62 (Suppl. 3): 287-291, September 2014
Capacity building and policy development in Belize marine protected areas,
an example for Caribbean integrated coastal management
M. James C. Crabbe1,2
1. Institute for Biomedical and Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Creative Arts, Technologies and
Science, University of Bedfordshire, Park Square, Luton, LU1 3JU, UK; james.crabbe@beds.ac.uk
2. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, The Tinbergen Building, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK;
james.crabbe@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
Received 01-VIII-2013 Corrected 04-II-2014 Accepted 24-III-2014
Abstract: Sustainability science can, through capacity building, allow for integrated stakeholder management
of the vital Caribbean marine ecosystems. We did a capacity building exercise in two major coral reef areas in
Southern Belize. The key outcome was a six-month personal/professional action plan developed by each par-
ticipant about tactics for leading, educating and supporting issues regarding sustainable development and tactics
for collaboration to influence policy decisions. Our results can be applied across the Caribbean. Rev. Biol. Trop.
62 (Suppl. 3): 287-291. Epub 2014 September 01.
Key words: hurricanes, bleaching, MPAs, climate change, global warming, Belize, Jamaica.
Against a backdrop of natural and anthro-
pogenic insults, an important question is: how
can management practices maintain sustainable
coral reef ecosystems? Integrated Coastal Zone
Management (ICZM) is a complex worldwide
governance issue requiring an integrated or
coordinated approach. It involves many rel-
evant stakeholders and policy initiatives need
to be developed over long time scales. Ideally,
marine ecosystems (i.e., corals and seagrass
beds) should be closely linked to terrestrial
ecosystems such as mangroves and coastal for-
ests. In developing management policies, edu-
cation and training to enhance human skills and
institutional capacity in resource management
is critical (Wescott, 2002). Both developed
and developing countries have used capacity-
building programs (Kaplan, Liu & Hannon,
2006; Rogers, Johnson, Warner, Thorson &
Punch, 2007). While many, if not all, of these
programs involve building competencies and
empowerment in local communities, few of
them involve policy makers or government
officials (Mequanent & Taylor, 2007). Partner-
ships can be vital for ICZM, particularly where
government policies link to local stakeholders
(e.g., beach clean-up groups and marine wild-
life associations) to produce collaborations that
can involve people with vested interests in the
coastal ecosystem (e.g., fishers, tour operators)
and in ongoing management frameworks.
The effective application of ICZM to cor-
al-reef ecosystems should address a number of
themes including:
1. Use of ecosystem and economic para-
meters to quantify the needs of marine
reserves.
2. Development of tactics for leading, edu-
cating, and supporting issues regarding
sustainable development of coral reef
ecosystems.
3. Incorporation of all relevant stakeholders
into the formulation of policy issues per-
taining to marine resource management
zoning plans.
We therefore undertook a capacity-build-
ing exercise around Marine Protected Areas
(MPAs) which involved both local Belizean
288
Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 62 (Suppl. 3): 287-291, September 2014
NGO community workers and a government
fisheries officer, so that community engage-
ment could be directly interfaced with fisher-
ies operations and policy. Our methodology
involved the development of personal action
plans to facilitate the future of sustainable
MPAs in the MesoAmerican Barrier Reef sys-
tem. Our approach meant that each individual
produced plans that reflected not only their
own priorities, but were tailored to their own
abilities. Team discussion meant that personal
plans were interlaced throughout the group, so
that the whole became greater than the sum of
the parts.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Capacity building: We undertook the
capacity building exercise in respect of two
MPAs in Southern Belize. There are two major
coral reef areas in Southern Belize, the Sapo-
dilla Cayes Marine Reserve (SCMR, a World
Heritage Site), and the Port Honduras Marine
Reserve (PHMR). The SCMR is a 125km2
reserve and has had a collaborative agreement
with the Belize Fisheries Department and the
Toledo Association for Sustainable Tourism
and Empowerment (TASTE) to manage the
area since its declaration in 1996. The PHMR
is a 414km2 reserve, and has been managed
by the Toledo Institute for Development and
Environment (TIDE) since its declaration in
January 2000.
The capacity building team consisted of
one officer from the Belize Fisheries Depart-
ment, three senior officers from NGOs involved
in managing Belize MPAs (TIDE, TASTE
and Friends of Nature), and a Facilitator (the
author of this paper) from the UK. These indi-
viduals were chosen because they had direct
contact with both NGOs (Non-governmental
organisations) and CBOs (Community-based
organisations), and the government Fisher-
ies Department, thus maximising exposure of
capacity building while keeping the numbers
of participants within workable limits. Daily
meetings, lasting between 1-2h, took place on
Lime Caye in the SCMR, Abalone Caye in
the PHMR, and in Punta Gorda Town, over a
10-day period in August 2007. Discussions,
led by the Facilitator employed a modified
nominal group technique (Sample, 1984) to
identify priorities related to personal action
plans. Four rounds were employed; round
one was based on the Delphi technique and
further rounds on the nominal group technique
approach (McCance, Fitzsimons, Keeney, Has-
son & McKenna, 2007). Specifically, after
initial meetings which revolved around frank
discussions on the interface been the Fisheries
Department and MPA management by NGOs,
each participant developed a personal action
plan to facilitate and improve the sustain-
ability of the MPAs in Southern Belize. There
was repeated iteration of these plans between
the participants, and the final production of a
policy for sustainable management of both the
marine reserves in the Sapodilla Cayes and in
Port Honduras.
RESULTS
Capacity building outcomes: The key
outcome was a six-month Personal/Profes-
sional Action Plan developed by each Belizean
participant outlining how they will personally
and professionally strive to meet the capacity-
building objectives above, and influence policy
development. Specifically these plans involved:
a. Tactics for leading, educating and suppor-
ting issues regarding sustainable develop-
ment in Southern Belize; and
b. Tactics for collaboration with other stake-
holders to collectively influence policy
decisions in Southern Belize.
Discussion among the participants and
facilitator as described in the Field methodol-
ogy section resulted in the generation of a
series of tactics to be adopted around a number
of themes viz: Organisation and management,
Education, Support and Policies (Crabbe et
al., 2010). Table 1 identifies a set of twelve
management operational needs identified by
the participants as their united action plan that
289
Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 62 (Suppl. 3): 287-291, September 2014
involved partnerships among government, non-
governmental organizations (NGOs), and com-
munities to improve ICZM. Each individual
member then implemented their action plans
and the united action plan with the communi-
ties that they represented.
DISCUSSION
Marine Reserves are an important tool
in sustainable management of the Belizean
coral reefs (Cho, 2005; Williams & Polunin,
2000). The need for case studies in building
integrated coastal management capacity has
been powerfully made (Jorge, 1997; McDuff,
2001; Wescott, 2002). Normally representa-
tives of all stakeholders (including fishermen,
dive-boat operators, etc) would be included
in such a capacity-building exercise. Our par-
ticular process was chosen as it represented
key stakeholders in the MPAs of Belize, while
being an efficient way of engaging a Facilitator
from abroad. Targeting a government ministry
worker and policy maker is a relatively new
approach in this area. Our study group mem-
bers were highly focused and motivated to
improving management of the Belize MPAs,
and were strongly committed to both short-
and long-term acceptance of the study group’s
goals for sustainability and resource manage-
ment by stakeholder groups. One reason for
this was the experience and responsibilities
of the individuals concerned – selection as to
who was in the group was a key operational
factor. However two groups were missing
from the capacity-building exercise – someone
from the political arena, and someone from
the University of Belize. We feel that it will
be important in the future to involve both
these sectors, the former to ensure that policy
development becomes law, and the latter to
ensure the sustainable monitoring of the reefs.
Political engagement is of particular interest, as
unlike the Great Barrier Reef, where manage-
ment is the responsibility of a single country,
Australia, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is
TABLE 1
1. Ecosystem zonation redesignated to balance stakeholders’ wishes and evidence-based fisheries catches.
2. A community-based research program developed via participants. This involved local fishers, with
qualitative and/or quantitative research methods.
3. Data of high accuracy recorded. Quantitative ecosystem data needs to be verified statistically.
4. Co-management plans between NGOs, communities and fisheries departments to address problems of
illegal fishermen from states or countries outside the governance of the MPAs. This is a significant problem
in reef areas close to Belize.
5. Regular public meetings of stakeholders fostered, as well as regular education events. Action plans were
developed and monitored by staff and stakeholders alike.
6. Effectiveness of zoning monitored and quantified. This relates to fishing practices as well as ecosystem
health.
7. Alternative livelihoods for fishers (e.g., in the tourist industry) fostered and maintained. Government
agencies were involved in linking tourism and economic development.
8. Tourists monitored and encouraged sustainably. All stakeholders were involved, with penalties for
unsustainable practices.
9. Effective management linked to the country’s economy. This is helped in Belize as fishing, and tourism are
both important parts of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
10. NGOs and MPAs link together. In areas where different NGOs are responsible for MPA management, as in
the MesoAmerican Barrier Reef, and where MPAs are distant from one another, it was helpful to link both
NGOs and MPAs so that a greater area of reef could be managed
11. Regular information to all stakeholders, from the politicians to the local communities, maintained.
Communication linked to the communities served (e.g. some oral, some printed, some via internet).
12. Management plans passed into law. The involvement of government officers –e.g., fisheries officers– as
partners is key to this important outcome, to ensure appropriate policing if resources are made available.
290
Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 62 (Suppl. 3): 287-291, September 2014
managed by Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and
Honduras, all countries which have different
management policies.
Our capacity building case study has pro-
duced new ideas to improve organisation,
management, education, support, and policy
development in MPAs in Southern Belize.
In addition, we suggest that MPAs need to
share regulation, enforcement and conserva-
tion, underpinned by scientific research. A
major challenge for the participants in this
exercise will be to maintain iterations among
and between their constituent groups to ensure
continued sustainability of both the reef and the
fishing practices.
The involvement of a Fisheries officer
in our capacity building has resulted in direct
transfer of information from the communities
to the Government department. The Facilitator
has also directly communicated the outcomes
of our study to the Director of Fisheries. The
personal action plans that were produced have
been implemented, taken back into their con-
stituent communities, and the NGOs TASTE
and Friends of Nature have been incorporated
into a single NGO, which spans several MPAs
in Southern Belize. Previously, there were
areas between MPAs that were not monitored
or policed, resulting in much illegal fishing.
Our approach is also part of a wider picture
in marine resource management in Belize,
where, for example, communities and fisher-
men are being exhorted not to catch parrotfish
(Scaridae), as grazing by that species is criti-
cal to reef resilience and restoration (Mumby,
Hastings & Edwards, 2007). In summary, our
approach is part of a complex relationship
(Gray & Hatchard, 2008) linking an ecosys-
tem-based approach to fisheries management
with comprehensive stakeholder participation.
Although MPAs are important conserva-
tion tools, their limitations in mitigating coral
loss from acute thermal stress events suggest
that they need to be complemented with poli-
cies aimed at reducing the activities responsible
for climate change (Eakin et al., 2010). One
way forward is to have networks of MPAs
(Keller et al., 2009), and they could be more
effective in conjunction with other manage-
ment strategies, such as fisheries regulations
and reductions of nutrients and other forms of
land-based pollution. Developing MPAs as part
of an overall climate change policy for a coun-
try (Söderholm 2012) may be the best way of
integrating climate change into MPA planning,
management, and evaluation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank the Earthwatch Institute and the
Oak Foundation (USA) for funding the Capac-
ity Building, and Burton Shank (Conservation
International) for essential help with the GPS
coordinates in Belize. Also thanks to Charley
Hitchcock and Dennis and Sandra Garbutt for
their vital organisational support during the
Belize project.
RESUMEN
Desarrollo de capacidades y desarrollo de políti-
cas en áreas marinas protegidas de Belice, un ejemplo
para la gestión integrada de la costa del Caribe. La
ciencia de la sostenibilidad puede, a través del desarrollo
de capacidades, permitir la gestión integrada de los actores
interesados en estos ecosistemas marinos vitales del Cari-
be. Realizamos un ejercicio de desarrollo de capacidades
en dos importantes arrecifes de coral al sur de Belice.
El resultado clave fue el desarrollo de un plan de acción
personal/profesional de seis meses para cada participante
sobre técnicas para liderar, educar y apoyar los problemas
acerca del desarrollo sostenible y técnicas para influir en
decisiones políticas. Nuestros resultados se pueden ejecutar
a lo largo de todo el Caribe.
Palabras clave: huracanes, blanqueo, cambio climático,
calentamiento global, Belice, Jamaica.
REFERENCES
Cho, L. (2005). Marine protected areas: a tool for integra-
ted coastal management in Belize. Ocean and Coas-
tal Management, 48, 932-947.
Crabbe, M. J. C., Martinez, E., Garcia, C., Chub, J., Castro,
L., & Guy, J. (2010). Is capacity building important in
policy development for sustainability? A case study
using action plans for sustainable Marine Protected
Areas in Belize. Society and Natural Resources, 23,
181-190.
291
Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 62 (Suppl. 3): 287-291, September 2014
Eakin C. M., Morgan, J. A., Heron, S. F., Smith, T. B., Liu,
G., Alvarez-Filip, L., Baca, B., Bartels, E., Bastidas,
C., … , & Yusuf Y. (2010). CaribbeanCorals in Crisis:
Record Thermal Stress, Bleaching, and Mortality in
2005. PLOSONE, 5(11), e13969. doi:10.1371/jour-
nal.pone.0013969
Gray, T., & Hatchard, J. (2008). A complicated relation-
ship: stakeholder participation and the ecosystem-
based approach to fisheries management. Marine
Policy, 32,158-168.
Jorge, M. A. (1997). Developing capacity for coastal
management in the absence of the government: a case
study in the Dominican Republic. Ocean and Coastal
Management, 36, 47-72.
Kaplan, M., Liu, S-T., & Hannon, P. (2006). Intergenera-
tional engagement in retirement communities: a case
study of a community capacity-building model. Jour-
nal of Applied Gerontology, 25, 406-426.
Keller, B. D., Gleason, D. F., McLeod, E., Woodley, C.
M., Airame, S., Causey, B. D., Friedlander, A. M.,
Grober-Dunsmore, R., … , & Steneck, R. S. (2009).
Climate Change, Coral Reef Ecosystems, and Mana-
gement Options for Marine Protected Areas. Environ-
mental Management, 44, 1069-1088.
McCance, T. V., Fitzsimons, D., Keeney, S., Hasson, F., &
McKenna, H. P. (2007). Capacity building in nursing
and midwifery research and development: an old
priority with a new perspective. Journal of Advanced
Nursing, 59, 57-67.
McDuff, M. D. (2001). Building the capacity of gras-
sroots conservation organisations to conduct partici-
patory evaluation. Environmental Management, 27,
715-727.
Mequanent, G., & Taylor, D. F. R. (2007). The big push
approach to African development and local capacity
building: understanding the issue. Canadian Journal
of Development Studies, 28, 9-26.
Mumby, P. J., Hastings, A., & Edwards, H. J. (2007).
Thresholds and the resilience of Caribbean coral
reefs. Nature, 450, 98-101.
Rogers, J. L., Johnson, T. R. B., Warner, P., Thorson, J. A.,
& Punch, M. R. (2007). Building a sustainable com-
prehensive Women’s Health program: the Michigan
model. Journal of Women’s Health, 16, 919-925.
Sample, J. A. (1984). Nominal group technique: an alter-
native to brainstorming. Journal of Extension, 22(2),
1-2.
Söderholm, P. (2012). Modeling the Economic Costs of
Climate Policy: An Overview. American Journal of
Climate Change, 1, 14-32.
Wescott, G. (2002). Partnerships for capacity building:
community, governments and universities working
together. Ocean and Coastal Management, 45,
549-571.
Williams, I. D., & Polunin, N. V. C. (2000). Differences
between protected and unprotected reefs of the Wes-
tern Caribbean in attributes preferred by dive tourists.
Environmental Conservation, 27, 382-391.
