Conservation tools

Many regulatory tools, programs and actions exist to ensure the preservation of biodiversity (spaces, species and habitats).

International tools
The international conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity signed in Rio in 1992 or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (1973) were established to protect the biodiversity. In the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR),the Cartagena Convention, through Annex 2 of the SPAW protocol signed by 17 states, protects all marine mammals.

National tools
Each country could established specific and complementary legislation and tools. Thus, many Caribbean countries protect cetaceans with more or less complex and complete regulations.

For more information on the status of marine mammals in the different countries of the Greater Caribbean region, please consult the study carried out in 2020 within the framework of the CARI’MAM project and the web map below, which are the result of the consultation of the contracting parties of the SPAW protocol.

For a better view of the map, make it in full screen and don’t forget to unclick the layer before changing it

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as : "a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, by any effective means, legal or otherwise, to ensure the long-term conservation of nature and and its associated ecosystem services and cultural values.
Most marine mammals have a wide range; however, most species congregate in areas where food resources are abundant, where they can breed and raise offspring, and move between these areas in ecological corridors. There is evidence that protection of these areas can significantly reduce mortality for some species. Given the extent of these ecological networks, enhanced regional international cooperation is needed to ensure the conservation of these species.

The MPAs of the WCR region have very different objectives, statuses and means of implementation. This results in more or less elaborate management documents and finally in very variable levels of protection for the species of fauna and flora.
Thus, in the Caribbean, there are about ten MPAs created in particular for the conservation of marine mammals, the most important are :
– the French sanctuary Agoa, the largest in the region with its 140,000 km²,
– the marine mammal sanctuaries of the Dominican Republic of Bancos de la Plata y la Navidad, where humpback whales are concentrated during the breeding season, and of Estero Hondo, created to protect the manatee ,
– the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary (United States), were live a population of Florida manatees, a subspecies of the threatened West Indian manatee,
– Yarari Marine Mammal Sanctuary (Caribbean Netherlands : marine territories of Bonaire, Saba, and St Eustatius).

A regional review of the MPA management plans (SPAW-RAC, 2020), based on a sample of 30 MPAs of varying status from across the WCR, showed that less than 70% of the management plans took marine mammals into account.

To a better integration of marine mammals the MPAs have to :
– the financial and technical means necessary for their operation;
– a complete management plan;
– know their territory better and promote it (research and awareness);
– involved in an active regional network of MPAs (transfer of knowledge and skills, identification of ecological corridors but also of emerging threats) ;
– rely on a regional strategic framework document

The Seflt Assessment Tool (SAT)
The Seflt Assessment Tool has been designed by the Ocean Governance Project members with the collaboration of the SPAW RAC for MPA managers to assess the extent to which marine mammals have been accounted for in the management plan, and areas in which this can be improved upon.

The SAT and the 23 factsheet topics can be downloaded here

Marine protected areas and regional cooperation
Given the importance of regional cooperation between the WCR MPAs, initiatives are been implemented to promote it :

CaMPAM (Caribbean Marine Protected Area Management) was created in 1997 under the framework of the Caribbean Environment Program of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP-CEP) and the Specially Protected Area and Wildlife (SPAW) Protocol of the Cartagena Convention activities. This initiative brings together MPA stakeholders to exchange ideas and expedite knowledge and lessons learned transfer across the region through a variety of mechanisms such as capacity building programs and communication tools.

SPAW sites: The inscription of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) under the SPAW Protocol is a priority for the Parties. The purpose of this list is to identify those areas that are of particular importance to the Wider Caribbean region, that are to be accorded in priority for scientific and technical research and mutual assistance, as well as to protect the listed areas from activities that would undermine the purposes for which they were listed. Currently, 35 sites are included in the SPAW list of protected areas.

Twinning programs : Several cooperation agreements have been signed between the different sanctuaries of the North-West Atlantic Ocean region to strengthen joint actions and the sharing of expertise, in order to improve knowledge, monitoring and conservation of humpback whales, and in particular Agoa has been twinned with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (Masachusets, USA) since 2011, with the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park (Quebec) since 2015 and with the Yarari Sanctuary (Lesser Antilles, Netherlands) since 2017. The agreement between NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Massachusetts, and the Yarari Marine Mammal and Shark Sanctuary of the Caribbean Netherlandsoffsite link in the Dutch Lesser Antilles.

Until the end of 2021, the CARI’MAM project (Caribbean Marine Mammals Preservation Network) allows the networking of marine protected areas dedicated to the preservation of marine mammals in the Greater Caribbean and beyond. It also aims to strengthen the skills of managers, develop management and assessment tools, and support the development of a sustainable commercial marine mammal observation throughout the Caribbean.