Marine Protected Areas

The inscription of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) under the SPAW Protocol is a priority for the Parties. The objective is to identify particularly important areas for the Wider Caribbean Region, ad to incorporate them to this network that is dedicated to the scientific research and to regional cooperation.

The inscription to the SPAW’s protected areas list is dictated by the requirement guidelines and criteria developed by the Working Group dedicated to protected spaces. Diverse evaluation mechanisms and online tools help determine the conformity of proposed MPS’s to the requirements adopted by the Contracting Parties of SPAW.

Three new sites have registered under the SPAW Protocol during COP 10 (Honduras, 2019): Kaw-Roura National Nature Reserve and Amana National Nature Reserve, both in French Guyana, as well as the Mount Scenery National Park of Saba Island, in the Dutch Caribbean. This makes up for a total of 35 Protected Areas listed under SPAW, areas that contribute significantly to the conservation of marine and coastal biodiversity in the Caribbean.

You can consult the list of Protected Areas listed under SPAW Protocol on this page.

Also, the SPAW-RAC is a historical partner of CaMPAM. Created in 1997 in the context of UNEP’s Caribbean Environment Program and in close collaboration with the SPAW Protocol, CaMPAM is a Caribbean network aiming to resolve the difficulties found by many MPAs in the region to share lessons and acquired expertise. The SPAW-RAC collaborates with this exchange platform that contributes to enhanced decision-making for better MPA management in the Wider Caribbean Region.