منطقه حفاظت شده دریایی « گل دریایی »: حاکمیت برای توسعه پایدار

The Seaflower MPA was declared in 2005 following a highly participatory process that culminated in local stakeholders formalizing MPA objectives, zoning, and management planning. It aims to conserve biodiversity, ensure sustainable use of the San Andres Archipelago’s coastal and marine resources and enhance equitable benefits for the local community. The decentralized, collaborative governance structure, complemented by an extensive interpretive program, remains strong. However, a lack of technical and financial resources has limited the systematic, sustainable implementation of management priorities such as enforcement and economic development. The implementation of forthcoming community-based programs, self-financing mechanisms, and increased national funding will enable advancement of these strategies.

The Seaflower Marine Protected Area (MPA) is Colombia’s first MPA. Covering 65,000 km2, it is the largest MPA in the wider Caribbean and protects about 2000 km2 of coral reefs, atolls, mangroves, and seagrass beds in conservation zones. The MPA is divided into 3 administrative sections – Northern (37,522 km2), Central (12,716 km2) and Southern (14,780 km2) – and is part of the larger Seaflower Biosphere Reserve that encompasses the entire San Andres Archipelago (Fig. 1). CORALINA, the regional autonomous government agency with authority over the environment of the San Andres Archipelago, has a sustainable development mission and was established by Congress as part of the country’s decentralised system of regional environmental governance (law 99 of 1993). To advance proper management of coastal and marine resources, CORALINA established the MPA in collaboration with the community and is responsible for day-to-day management of its three sections. Seaflower has a clear sustainable development goal that combines conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity and ecosystems with local sustainable use and a more equitable distribution of benefits. Full-size image (71 K) Fig. 1. Location, boundaries, and management Section 3 of the Seaflower MPA within the larger Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, Colombia (Source: A. Mitchell CORALINA). Figure options The Seaflower MPA includes the largest open-ocean coral reefs in the Caribbean. Its location means that it protects not only one of the most extensive reef areas in the Western Atlantic, but also a particularly complex one due to exposure to currents, wave action, and other physical oceanographic factors [1]. The San Andres Archipelago’s most significant coral reef, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems are found in the MPA: San Andres barrier reef, southern atolls, and lagoons in the Southern Section; Old Providence and Santa Catalina barrier reef and lagoon in the Central Section; and well-preserved atolls and banks (Quitasueño/Queena, Serrana, and Roncador) in the Northern Section. The MPA has legally defined zones consistent in the three sections designated for: (i) artisanal fishing (traditional methods and users only); (ii) no-entry (research and monitoring only); (iii) no-take (non-extractive activities only); (iv) special use (as required to assure achievement of MPA objectives; e.g., ports, shipping lanes, cruise-ship anchorage, etc.); and (v) general use. Representative examples of tropical marine ecosystems found in the Caribbean including coral reefs, lagoons, seagrass and algal beds, and unvegetated soft bottoms are found in each section and protected in no-take and no-entry zones. These ecosystems are important locally for fisheries, tourism, and shoreline protection. They are integral to the islanders’ socio-cultural identity, but are also important for national and global conservation. In addition, while the deep water between sites is mostly unstudied, the available evidence suggests them to be important for maintaining marine food webs and deep sea habitats, flows, spawning aggregations, and connectivity, e.g., through larval dispersal [2].

A goal of Seaflower MPA management is to improve governance through an equal balance of strategies across every incentive area. This is not to suggest that any present incentives should be reduced but rather that the use of all incentives should be expanded in ways that tend toward a more balanced distribution and contribution of all types [12]. Governing the Seaflower MPA effectively is rooted in achieving the MPA’s holistic sustainable development objectives. Although proper management of the ecosystems and biodiversity protected in the MPA’s various zones is the primary tool to achieve objectives, diverse methods and incentives are needed. One of the major successes of MPA management to date is the variety and extent of its on-going education, outreach, and public involvement programs. Efforts will continue in areas of interpretative, knowledge, and participatory incentives, but the main problems facing the Seaflower MPA at this time are in the areas of economic and legal incentives. In 2009, application of a ‘scorecard’ to evaluate MPA effectiveness identified the two most pressing management needs as enforcement and economic development for vulnerable groups; i.e., to establish effective enforcement and compliance structures that are collaborative with authorities and community sharing enforcement responsibility, transparent, legitimate, fair, and based on accurate information; and to promote sustainable and alternative livelihoods to alleviate poverty and achieve financial sustainability to support long-term MPA management and generation of local jobs in conservation [8]. These results are in accord with the results of community consultations and standardized interviews of over 200 primary stakeholders completed the same year [14]. As a public entity and environmental management institution, CORALINA has a wealth of ideas on how traditional livelihoods and the local economic model could be improved to be sustainable with conservation objectives but has no expertise in business or economic development. However, for Seaflower MPA management, as for MPA managers around the globe, achieving conservation and development that are truly sustainable remains a challenge. The very nature of sustainable development is holistic, multi-disciplinary, and integrated, which is difficult to achieve in a world in which managers and their institutions continue to have environmental or economic or social science mandates, goals, and responsibilities – but rarely, if ever, all three – and to be managed and staffed by professionals and technicians who themselves have been trained in ‘siloed’ education systems that narrowly define fields and assign approaches, methods, and values to certain fields. To improve MPA governance with effective actions in every incentive area demands in-depth knowledge of a variety of methods, cross-sectoral programming, and a truly holistic approach to management.