Once the reserves are created, facilitators will work with local government to officially recognize the reserves. After paperwork is finalized, the reserves will need to be monitored and surveilled to avoid illegal fishing, users will need to gather ecological data over time to track progress, and the facilitators need to help implement other viable economic strategies and ensure their success. If feasible, reserves serving as a network should be implemented at relatively the same time to contribute to the success of the network.
In this first phase, facilitators of no-take marine reserves should aim to establish trusted relationships with the local communities and resources users that would likely be impacted from the implementation of a marine reserve. This entails the facilitator assessing the social, financial, and leadership structures to determine what the community needs to motivate creating a reserve. Concurrently, facilitators should gather any necessary baseline data to better populate tools that will help to create the reserve.
Decision Tree
Decision Tree
Implementation Phase
Once the reserve is created, facilitators will work with local government to officially recognize the reserve. After paperwork is finalized, the reserve will need to be monitored and surveilled to avoid illegal fishing, users will need to gather ecological data over time to track progress, and the facilitators need to help implement other viable economic strategies and ensure their success.
In this phase, periodic and continual surveying of the protected species within the marine reserve will determine the success or failure of it.
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Create an evaluation team (local community members, scientists, facilitators, etc.)
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Sustain a productive relationship through common support for initial goals and objectives of the reserve
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Determine which metrics to survey for based on data needed to populate FishForever toolkit
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Survey specified metrics (abundance, density, diversity, size, etc. of target species) periodically
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Communicate and disseminate survey information and progress reports on the monitoring and reserve status
Toolkits: Fish Forever
Key Questions:
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Have you created survey tests and data collection methods to measure marine reserve productivity over time?
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Have you created an evaluation team?
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Have you determined the frequency with which data will be collected?
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Have you created a database to input survey results?
Successful implementation no-take marine reserves relies on strong governance approach that supports compliance and enforcement for recovery of marine resources.
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Enact law, regulations and/or necessary statutory instruments to support no-take marine reserves.
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Adaptive management plan delineate enforcement and surveillance strategies for no-take marine reserve.
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Heavy coordination among key agencies who have legal mandate and stakeholder groups to conduct effective enforcement of no-take marine reserves.
Toolkit: MPA Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (MPA MEAT)
Key Questions:
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Do you have strong legal basis (law/regulations) to implement and enforce no-take marine reserves
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Have you incorporated monitoring and surveillance of no-take marine reserves in adaptive management plan?
In this phase you are putting into action all the planning you have done until now. Things to consider about the social components are:
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Have clear enforcement incentives which are shared and accepted by the community . Incentivizing marine reserves motivates self-surveillance, which may be the most likely option in many cases.
- Examples:
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Define identifiable boundaries for the marine reserve, such as landmarks both on and off shore, or lines of latitude and longitude that are within range of enforcement bodies.
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If there are private, state, or federal funds to ensure the compliance of a marine reserve,, co-operative members can be trained, participate, and get paid for in monitoring activities
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Where government support lacks, communities can create village watch groups in conjunction with local police to regularly surveil the area and penalize offenders.
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Rules should be tailored to specific local, social, and environmental norms.
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Toolkit: MPA Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (MPA MEAT)
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Capacity building workshops: During this phase facilitators will want to develop different workshops to enhance the community’s strengths and forster the communities weak points. Workshop could also target existing or potential livelihood options.
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Key Questions:
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What is the monitoring strategy for the reserve?
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What are the internal rules for compliance?
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What kind of workshops will be relevant for the community?
We include here a series proposed indicators and type of data to be gathered during this phase. It is crucial that the information starts being recorded at the very beginning of the implementation process, so the management group can have a baseline for the consequent evaluation.​
