The federal government of the Bahamas is working to create the Bahamas Marine Reserve Network, a series of marine reserves to preserve biodiversity and the commercially-harvested fish stocks of the islands.
In 2000, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham declared the government’s intention to establish conservation measures governing at least 20 percent of the near-shore marine resources of the islands by 2012. The government announced that five areas had been selected as the first proposed marine reserves in the network and would be no-take areas, off-limits to commercial fishing.
The Bahamas National Trust, the Bahamas Reef Environmental Education Foundation, scientists from the Center for Biodiversity and Planning, fishermen and local communities have been assisting in decisions about the design and boundaries of the marine reserves.
The network’s development was hindered by a lack of resources and a change in government. Ingraham’s party lost power in 2002, but regained it again in 2007.
In late 2008, an ongoing hotel development was threatening North Bimini Island and it established as the first marine reserve, protecting a shark nursery and mangrove habitat. However, as of December 2009, marine advocates at the Bimini Biological Field Station reported that efforts to define specific regulations and boundaries governing the marine reserve were still in progress.
Objectives
The Department of Marine Resources of the Bahamas has listed the following objectives of the proposed marine reserve network:
Lead Organizations
Government
Non-Governmental Organizations
Key Parties
Stakeholders
Non-Governmental Organizations
The effort to plan for the creation of a Bahamas Marine Reserve Network relies on partnerships with non-governmental organizations but does not have a clearly defined structure.
Scientific
Outreach and Communication
The Department of Marine Resources along with the Bahamas National Trust and the Bahamas Reef Environmental Education Foundation (BREEF) have conducted the majority of outreach to stakeholder groups whose support is crucial to establish the marine reserves and ensure compliance with regulations.
The Bahamas National Trust is a non-profit established by government legislation in 1959 to manage terrestrial and marine parks of the Bahamas. BREEF was founded in 1993 and conducts educational and advocacy efforts to preserve and improve the marine environment.
The economy of the Bahamas relies on tourism, which is tied to the health of the ecosystem. Visitors come to the islands to enjoy the beaches, clear water and marine recreational activities.
Scientists, non-governmental organizations and government leaders have been concerned about the health of the marine resources of the islands, and have taken steps to provide greater legal protections. In 1958, the government established the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, a terrestrial park that also included a marine area. Fishing was allowed within the park until 1986.
Successive Bahamian governments have created 24 additional national parks and a new public-private, non-governmental organization, the Bahamas National Trust which was formed to manage the new National Park System. However, a lack of resources has inhibited efforts to protect these parks from degradation.
In the 1999 National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham identified establishing an integrated, effective and functional system of protected areas as the highest environmental priority for the government. The action plan supported the commitment of the Bahamas to creating a system of terrestrial protected areas by 2010 and marine reserves by 2012, specified by the United Nations-facilitated Convention on Biological Diversity that was signed by the Bahamas in 1992.
Ingraham’s government set out to exceed that commitment in the Bahamas 2020 Declaration, which pledged the promulgation of conservation measures governing at least 20 percent of the near-shore marine area. The declaration established that reversing a decline in endemic and endangered species would be a national goal. It called for strengthening partnerships with non-governmental organizations, local communities and the private sector relative to resource conservation.
In 2004, the Bahamas government, the Bahamas National Trust and the Nature Conservancy signed a National Implementation Support Programme Agreement, a legal mechanism established through the Convention on Biological Diversity, which commits the partners to steps that would achieve the establishment of the land and marine reserves.
In 2007, the Bahamas requested and received international funding under the terms of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which has allowed it to complete some scientific studies and create planning tools needed to establish new protected areas.
The Ecosystem
The Bahamas are located in the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Miami, Fla. and include roughly 700 low-lying islands and cays (of which 30 islands are inhabited). Because of its relative ecological isolation of and small population, the Bahamas has preserved a great abundance of marine biodiversity endemic to the islands. The marine ecosystem is considered to be healthy. In fact, the majority of the marine environment remains unexplored and virtually untouched, according to government scientists.
The areas designated for marine reserves include nursery grounds key for sustaining commercially-harvested fish and spiny lobster, along with key habitats characterized by mangrove trees, sand flats, seagrass and shallow reef systems.
Threats
Threats include:
Marine Reserves
The locations of five marine reserves were selected by government planners in consultation with external, United States-based scientists, using criteria that considered ecological significance and anticipated public support. According to the Department of Marine Resources, the basic ecological principles informing the design of the network were the following:
The first five marine reserves have been proposed to protect marine resources at the following locations: Abaco, Berry Islands, Exuma Cays, North Bimini, and South Eleuthera/Long Island.
Monitoring, assessment and evaluation is being conducted by the Bahamas Biocomplexity Project, which aims to study questions related to the design of marine protected areas. However, the integration of the Bahamas Biocomplexity Project and the work of other external researchers with the government-sponsored planning effort is not clear. No management plan has been specified for the network.
The Bahamas Reef Environmental Education Foundation: http://www.breef.org/
The Bahamas National Trust: http://www.bnt.bs/
The Bahamas Biocomplexity Project: http://bbp.amnh.org/website/home.html