This section provides background information on the initiative.

Why evaluate MPA management effectiveness?
Goals and objectives
Project support
Overview of project phases
Progress to date

WHY EVALUATE MPA MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS?
Broad expectations have been placed on MPAs to protect marine biodiversity and ecosystem function, to reduce poverty, and to provide for healthier coastal communities with a strong foundation for economic growth. MPAs are severely challenged in achieving their objectives, for example, insufficient financial and technical resources, lack of trained staff, or lack of data for management decisions. Performance evaluation plays a critical role in providing for and demonstrating long-term positive impacts on biodiversity and the human communities that depend on these resources. Management effectiveness is the degree to which a protected area is used to achieve it's goals and objectives. Assessing management effectiveness is a way to document how the management of a protected area influences its success. Evaluating management effectiveness should ultimately lead to improved project planning, accountability, and adaptive management.

GOALS and OBJECTIVES
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Marine and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are collaborating to improve the management of marine protected areas (MPAs) by providing managers, planners and other decision-makers with methods for assessing the effectiveness of MPA sites. This tool is aimed to enhance the capability for adaptive management in MPAs. The initiative builds on the IUCN Management Effectiveness Framework (Hockings, et al. 2002) developed by the WCPA Management Effectiveness Task Force.

PROJECT SUPPORT
The initiative is supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas - Marine, World Wide Fund for Nature, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Ocean Service.

PROGRESS TO DATE

Developed MPA specific indicators:
Indicators are an integral part of MPA evaluation to evaluate whether goals and objectives are achieved. Due to the many unique conditions and challenges of the marine environment, a specific set of indicators for MPAs was developed. A survey of goals and objectives from MPAs around the world was conducted and these fell into three primary categories; governance, biophysical and socioeconomic. Next, a survey was done of existing indicators used to measure various aspects of the marine environment and coastal communities. The indicators were then linked to the relevant MPA goals and objectives that they could measure.

The initial draft set of MPA goals, objectives, and indicators was reviewed, evaluated and prioritized by a group of experts at the Indicator Workshop in Venezuela, October 2001. Experts from 17 different countries with diverse backgrounds in MPAs and expertise in governance, biophysical and socioeconomic fields of study participated. An "indicator profile" was developed for each indicator, which provides a description, methods for collecting data on each indicator, and guidance on analysis of the data. The indicators were peer reviewed and revised into a final draft (click here for results of the Venezuela workshop, pdf 20K).

Completed Working Draft Guidebook:
The draft MPA management effectiveness guidebook describes how to select indicators for a unique MPA and how to use these indicators in assessing the effectiveness of MPAs. The Working Draft includes revisions based on a review by MPA experts and the primary contacts from the pilot sites.

Field-test the Working Draft Guidebook:
The draft MPA guidebook and indicators will be tested in pilot sites around the world to provide improvements and examples in the final publication of the guidebook. The pilot sites include a range of geographic and regional representation, marine ecosystems, protection systems, size of the protected area, and years of management experience. A workshop was convened in Hawaii, September 2002, to launch the pilot project phase and included 30 participants, representing 21 different MPAs from 14 countries. The workshop activities included a training session on how to use the guidebook and indicators. Each site selected the indicators most appropriate for measuring management effectiveness according to the site goals and objectives. The field-testing phase of the indicators is a crucial step to obtain input to revise the guidebook and provide case study examples to compliment the guidebook.

Preparing for the World Parks Congress:
The guidebook and experiences from the pilot projects will be presented and distributed at the World Parks Congress, September 2003, Durban, South Africa.

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