Key Factors Influencing MPA Effectiveness

1. Capacity Priorities: Directly link to long-term outcomes and necessary actions.

2. Clear Plans and Priorities: Inform grant-seeking and sustainable finance plans.

3. Regular Assessments: Identify key activities, funding gaps, and staffing needs.

4. Organizational Management: Ensure effective fundraising, budgeting, project management, and staff roles.

Management Capacity

Some of the most common challenges in managing an MPA effectively include finding dedicated managers, securing and maintaining staff members with adequate skills, and securing sufficient budgets to conduct management activities. A global assessment of results from Protected Area Management Effectiveness (PAME) assessments for MPAs, that used common tools (e.g., METT), found “staff and budget capacity were the strongest predictors of conservation impact: MPAs with adequate staff capacity had ecological effects 2.9 times greater than MPAs with inadequate capacity” (Gill et. al., 2017).

In most cases, MPA budgets and staff will always be limited so the key is to focus on what staff and actions to prioritize. Priorities vary by site and include activities most critical to achieve the objectives. For example, a site whose main objective is the replenishment of fish populations may not be able to achieve this objective without adequate enforcement to address poaching. Another site may require outreach interpreters for dive tourists to address damage from recreational use but may not need many enforcement staff if illegal fishing is not a problem at that site. Some key factors that can greatly influence an MPAs effectiveness include: 

• Capacity priorities should be directly linked to long-term outcomes (e.g., improved health or marine resources) and the key actions needed to achieve them (e.g., threat reduction). Prioritization of where resources are focused greatly influences your chances of being effective. 

• Develop clear plans and site priorities to inform which grants to seek, and develop sustainable finance plans that outline financial and capacity needs for core activities.

• Assess financial and management capacity upfront and at regular intervals to help prioritize key activities to conduct. It can also help to identify key gaps in funding or staffing that need o be filled in the future. Such an assessment helps identify knowledge and skills that staff may need. For example, MPA managers often have natural resource management or conservation expertise but lack business-oriented skills for managing tourism and fisheries or technological skills for surveillance.

Organizational Management Capacity

Organizational management capacity including the ability of a managing body to effectively carry out core day-to-day activities is often a challenge that impedes management effectiveness. Skills such as raising and managing funds, prioritizing daily activities, managing projects and budgets, and office management are a key requirement for successful implementation. Identifying organizational capacity gaps can define staffing needs and capacity development needs. 

Sustainable Finance

Sustainable finance is often one of the greatest challenges for MPA management. Sustainable finance aims to provide a secure stream of funding for core management staff and activities and leverage additional sources of funding that require match funds. There are several finance mechanisms available, from traditional mechanisms such as grants, taxes, and user fees, to more innovative structures such as bonds and payments for ecosystem services. Finance of MPAs should include a diversity of instruments and revenue sources to the extent possible to minimize risk or instability (Bos et al., 2015). Choosing the right finance instrument requires careful analysis of program objectives, social and cultural contexts, economic sectors and barriers, and political landscapes (Iyer et al., 2019, Meyers et al., 2020.)