Woburn Clarkes Court Bay Marine Protected Area Management Plan (2012)

This report is given in response to a Scope of Works outlining specific expected outcomes. A Steering Committee was set up by the Chief Fisheries Officer to advise the consultant on the orientation and emphasis that the study should take. The Steering Committee, in advising the consultant, indicated that the Woburn Clarkes Court Bay Marine Protected Area (WCCBMPA) was no longer a Marine Protected Area (MPA) as envisaged when it was originally declared in 2001 when the overwhelming emphasis was on habitat conservation. The committee agreed that the orientation would be for emphasis on both conservation and utilization. The WCCBMPA would have, in 2001, and in the period of preparation for it, more fitted the definition of an MPA as: ‘a spatially defined area in which all populations were free of exploitation’ (Berkes et al, 2001). Today, the Woburn Clarkes Court Bay MPA has changed into a multi-use area where equal, if not more, emphasis is placed on resource utilization as on natural resource conservation. 

In consultation with the Steering Committee, it was also agreed that a participatory planning process would mean involving both local area stakeholders and competent authorities. The report would reflect that the opinions, impressions and viewpoints of local area stakeholders were heavily emphasized.

Area of interest: Grenada

Year: 2012