Procedure for listing Protected Areas under the SPAW Protocol

The listing of Protected Areas under the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) Protocol, as identified under Article 7 of the Protocol, has been made a priority since 2004 by successive Conferences of Parties. The purpose of this list is to identify those areas that are of particular importance to the Wider Caribbean region, that are to be accorded in priority for scientific and technical research and mutual assistance, as well as to protect the listed areas from activities that would undermine the purposes for which they were listed.

The benefits of inscribing PA’s under SPAW are multiple.

Appropriate guidelines and criteria regarding the requirements for designating protected areas under the SPAW Protocol were developed by a dedicated expert working group and adopted in 2008. They were updated in 2025 to assist Parties in preparing nominations for protected areas to be listed under the SPAW Protocol