topics:                     MARINE PROTECTED
                                         AREAS (MPA's)
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3.2. Marine Protected Areas

Present public opinion, especially in developed countries, attaches equal or higher values to preservation viz-a-viz economic development. There is a growing sense of environmental responsibility with respect to other species and future generations. Clev er schemes are devised, e.g., swaps of debts for nature, mitigation and no-net loss of wetland regulations.
It is gratifying to witness the recognition by and active involvement of The World Bank in projects dealing with marine protected areas (World Bank, 1995), including well- advised recommendations to improve the training of managers.

The growing number and area of Marine and Coastal Protected area on the Caribbean islands is illustrated in several of the graphs in the CCS homepage (see Section 5.5). The distinct need for protection of coral reefs is clear from estimates by Jeremy Jackson of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, in the last forty years half of the Caribbean coral reefs has disappeared (Hierta, 1994).


Additional graphs:

Increase in Marine Protected Areas around Caribbean Islands 1900 - 1988

Number of Marine Protected Areas by island, 1988

Marine and Coastal Protected Areas of the Caribbean Islands, by area



3.3. Tourism and Public Beaches

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