How Can I Use MPA Funds More Effectively?

Reliable, long-term, unrestricted financing is the holy grail for MPA managers, but it’s something that few MPAs have achieved. For most MPA managers, it’s a daily challenge to cover staff salaries, fund enforcement activities (especially fuel), and pay for office rent, let alone fund capital investments, maintain infrastructure/equipment, and support programmatic activities like research, monitoring, education, and communications.

The daily struggle can leave little time or energy for long-term financial planning and exploring sustainable financing mechanisms. But sustainable financing is not only about accessing more funding but also about using the funding you have effectively. Here we answer some common questions about budgeting, mobilizing available funds, and achieving cost-efficiencies in the operation of an MPA.

How much does it cost to operate an MPA?

It’s hard to generalize about how much it costs to run an MPA. Some studies provide estimates – for example, a Mexican study mentions a figure of US$1,000 per square kilometre for effective protected areas in Latin America, Africa and Asia (Bezaury-Creel et al, 2011). But operational costs aren’t consistent across all sizes and types of MPAs. There’s no avoiding the task of calculating your own site-specific financing needs. 

How to create an MPA budget

Good MPA financial management begins with taking the time and effort to build a budget. Arm yourself with the MPA management plan, any work plans, and the organizational strategic plan. Follow these steps to create an MPA budget spreadsheet:

1. Start with the MPA’s objectives as the basis for the structure of the MPA budget.

2. Identify the activities and sub-activities associated with each strategic objective – these become the rows of the budget.

3. Forecast the annual costs associated with each budget item, being sure to record details about unit costs, quantities and the formulae for your workings in separate columns for future reference.

4. Categorize the budget items according to MPA programmatic areas, using another column, and indicate whether each budget item links to (for example) enforcement, communications/education, research/monitoring, community development or natural resource management.

5. Identify the categories into which each budget item falls as another column, for example personnel, consumables, equipment/infrastructure, contracts or travel.

6. For each budget item indicate the amount of funding secured (and the source of funding) and indicate the balance still to be raised.

7. Comparing the total funding secured with the gap still to be raised will give a quick read of MPA financial health.

You can see an example MPA budget below. We recommend building an MPA budget with forecasts for the next three years. 

Figure 1. Sample budget template. Copyright 2021 by MPAConnect. Reproduced with permission.

As part of the MPA financial planning process, next calculate three budget scenarios:

1. The budget needed for basic management activities to ensure a minimum level of achievement of the MPA’s objectives. 

2. The budget needed for optimum management to fully achieve the MPA’s objectives. 

3. The currently available budget. Many MPAs operate with a crisis-level budget, which means that the current budget is actually less than their basic budget scenario. 

Regardless of the MPA’s current financial health, after undertaking this budgeting exercise you’ll be able to answer the question of how much it costs to operate and maintain the MPA under different scenarios. And by knowing the size of the gap in the MPA budget you’re better positioned to evaluate the potential contribution of possible sustainable financing mechanisms.

How to prioritize when funds are limited

When building your budget, include a column for the priority of each activity or item. Use this prioritization to guide funding allocation. Determine the gap between available funding and the funding needed under each scenario, and identify where the gaps occur in terms of MPA objectives, programmatic areas, and budget categories.

Focus your fundraising efforts on high-priority items that lack existing funding. In times of financial adversity, it’s crucial to maintain enforcement and community liaison to ensure resource protection and stakeholder relationships.

For strategies on diversifying funding, see our Diversifying Finance Streams page.

Those items that have the highest priority but lack an existing funding source deserve to be the focus of your fundraising efforts. By virtue of the strategic importance of these budget items, you can build a compelling story for fundraising or make a strong case to justify other support.

In times of crisis, and during MPA financial adversity, it’s critical to keep an enforcement presence in the field to ensure direct resource protection. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Belizean NGO co-managers told MPAConnect that they kept up 85% of usual patrol hours despite a 50% drop in funding. In tandem with law enforcement efforts, it’s essential to maintain at least a basic level of community liaison so that hard-won local MPA stakeholder relationships don’t deteriorate. 

When funds are tight, you may need to apply austerity measures to ensure continuous enforcement of the MPA and community liaison. The following list outlines some austerity measures you could consider:

Budgeting according to MPA objectives rather than project deliverables can help demonstrate to the MPA board, donors and budget-holders the critical importance of ongoing items like staff salaries and rent that are traditionally hard to fund through grants or donations.

Cost-effectiveness as a sustainable financing strategy

Cost-effectiveness is a legitimate part of your MPA sustainable financing plan and cost tracking is an important part of budgetary processes. COVID-19 has forced many MPAs to become leaner organizations and, in some cases, a real fear of closure has driven a search for cost-saving measures and financial efficiencies.

Compliance/enforcement cost-efficiencies

The compliance/enforcement programme is typically the most expensive part of an MPA’s operations. Cost-effectiveness can sometimes be derived from:

• Strategic enforcement planning based on knowledge of local stakeholder behaviour and scientific monitoring findings. This can guide spot checks that target specific locations and seasons/times rather than a full schedule of regular patrol routes and hours.

• An intelligence-led enforcement response. Mature MPA compliance programmes will rely on good local intelligence derived from strong community liaison efforts, from joint operations with local law enforcement partners, and from participation in national forums such as maritime security councils.

• Building stewardship and compliance with MPA regulations. This can reduce enforcement programme costs – achieving voluntary compliance with regulations is the cheapest MPA enforcement strategy. MPA outreach programmes such as Hawaii’s Makai Watch programme are actively working with MPA users to build stewardship and are successfully reducing the burden on law enforcement.

• Tracking costs associated with the operation of the enforcement programme. For example by integrating spatial monitoring of enforcement patrols with MPA financial management, you can compare staff time, fuel use and vessel wear-and-tear against forecasts and against the enforcement effectiveness achieved.

Cost-efficiencies through formal partnerships

In various programmatic areas, establishing formal partnerships with other agencies and allies can be a strategy for cost-effectiveness and cost-sharing: 

Cost-efficiencies through technology

Technology can sometimes enhance MPA cost-effectiveness with:

• Online payment systems can make collecting fees more effective and efficient. Since online fee payment systems also capture some demographic information and contact details for visitors, this creates opportunities for further targeted marketing to those visitors. At the same time, these systems reduce the risks of handling cash and possible losses.

• Drones can enhance surveillance and detection capacity, though when an infraction is detected then you’ll still need a well-trained and properly equipped ranger team to respond. So while drone technology complements enforcement, it doesn’t remove the main costs associated with field enforcement.

For insights into technology use, visit our Technology and Innovation in MPAs page.

Co-management and MPA financing

Legal, administrative, social and political barriers can all hamper the feasibility of financing mechanisms or the success of their implementation. Government-managed MPAs face particular barriers. User funds and grants raised by government-managed MPAs are often not ring-fenced and instead are channelled into central government accounts, to be subsequently allocated among many competing national priorities, sometimes biased by partisan politics. Government-managed MPAs are limited in their ability to accept donations in the interests of transparency/anti corruption measures. Financial flexibility and responsiveness can be constrained by essential government procedures and structures. 

Co-management of MPAs by governments with NGOs, community-based organizations or other actors can be a way to overcome some of the barriers different governance types face (see Module 3 MPA governance and sustainable financing Q&A and Module 3 Port Honduras Marine Reserve case study). NGO co-management can open additional fundraising opportunities for MPAs e.g. via tax deductible donations. NGOs can more easily recruit suitably skilled staff on more flexible terms as dictated by the needs of developing and implementing MPA financing strategies. NGO and other co-managers can also bring a ‘conservation as a business’ mindset, opening up MPA enterprise development and helping access impact investment. 

Governments still play a key facilitating role in many sustainable financing mechanisms, however. Taxes, debt-for-nature swaps, blue bonds and blended finance (where national development aid is used to help leverage private investment) are examples to keep in mind.