Recreational scuba diving in Caribbean marine protected areas: Do the users pay?

Ambio

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 140-144

  Green, Edmund ^a   Donnelly, Rachel ^b  

^a UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME WORLD CONSERVATION MONITORING CENTRE   (United Kingdom)

^b CARDIFF UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CORAL REEF; PROTECTED AREA; RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY; SCUBA DIVING; USER FEE;

CARIBBEAN ISLANDS; CENTRAL AMERICA;

ANIMALIA; ANTHOZOA;

EID: 0037361907     PISSN: 00447447     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1579/0044-7447-32.2.140     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. The definition of a protected area used here is that adopted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN): an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means. MPAs referred to in this paper fall into one of six protected area management categories, I-VI, based on the primary management objective. Further details may be obtained at (http://www.unep-wcmc.org/protected_areas/categories/index.html).
2. Jennings, S. 1998. Cousin Island, Seychelles: a small effective and internationally managed marine reserve. Coral Reefs 17, 190.
3. Grigg, R.W. 1994. Effects of sewage discharge, fishing pressure and habitat complexity on coral ecosystems and reef fishes in Hawaii. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 103, 25-34.
4. Roberts, C.M. and Polunin, N.V.C. 1994. Marine reserves: simple solutions to managing complex fisheries? Ambio 22, 363-368.
5. Clark, J.R., Causey, B. and Bohnsack, J.A. 1989. Benefits from coral reef protection: Looe Key, Florida. In: Coastal Zone '89: Proc. 6th Symposium on Coastal and Ocean Management. Magoon, O.T., Converse, H., Minor, D., Tobin, L.T. and Clark, D. (ads). American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, pp. 3076-3086.
6. Russ, G.R. and Alcala, A.C. 1996. Do marine reserves export adult fish biomass? Evidence from Apo Island. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 132, 1-9.
7. McClanahan, T.R. and Shafir, S.H. 1990. Causes and consequences of sea urchin abundance and diversity in Kenyan coral reef lagoons. Oceologia 83, 362-370.
8. Salm, R.V., Clark, J. and Siirila, E. 2000. Marine and Coastal Protected Areas: A Guide for Planners and Managers. IUCN The World Conservation Union, 371 pp.
9. Geoghagan, T. 1994. Financing strategies for protected areas in the insular Caribbean. Parks 4, 28-38.
10. United Nations Environment Programme 2000. Funding Protected Areas in the Wider Caribbean: A Guide for Managers and Conservation Organizations. Caribbean Environment Programme report, 49 pp.
11. Van't Hof, T. 1989. Making marine parks self-sufficient: the case of Saba. In: Caribbean Ecology and Economics: Selected Papers from the Caribbean Conference on Economics and the Environment, Barbados 1989, Girvan, N.P. and Simmons, D.A. (eds). 431 pp.
12. DeRavariere, R., Banks, J., Elliott, P. and Seal, J. 1993. British Virgin Islands National Parks Trust reef protection programme and mooring system, 5 year plan 1993-1998.
13. Dixon, J.A., Scura, L.F. and Van't Hof, T. 2000. An economic and ecological analysis of the Bonaire Marine Park. In: Collected Essays on the Economics of Coral Reefs. Cesar, H.S.J. (ed.). CORDIO (Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean), 244 pp.
14. UNEP-WCMC maintains a global database of marine protected areas as a part of its World Database on Protected Areas in close collaboration with the 1UCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). This is the only comprehensive global list of protected areas, and contains links to descriptive data describing important features, and GIS-data showing the distribution of sites, including mapped boundaries for a large number of locations.
15. UNEP-WCMC maintains a global geographic database of dive operators which summarises information extracted from tourists guides, internet searches and membership lists of diving organisations such as the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
16. Spalding, M.D., Ravilious, C. and Green, E.P. 2001. World Atlas of Coral Reefs. University of California Press, 416 pp.
17. Caribbean/Latin America Action 1998. 1999 Caribbean/Latin America Profile: the Business Profile of the Americas. Caribbean Publishing Company, 48 pp.
18. Dixon, J.A. 1993. Economic benefits of marine protected areas. Oceanus 36, 35-40.
19. PADI certifies 55% of the world's scuba divers and has experienced an average annual increase in certification of 8.5% through the 1990s. (http://www.padi.com/news/stats/cert_history.asp)
20. Spash, C.L. 2000. Assessing the benefits of improving coral reef biodiversity: the contingent valuation method. In: Collected Essays on the Economics of Coral Reefs. Cesar, H.S.J. (ed.). CORDIO (Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean), pp 4-54.
21. Medio, D., Ormond, R.F.G. and Pearson, M. 1997. Effect of briefings on rates of damage to corals by scuba divers. Biol. Conserv. 79, 91-95.
22. Hawkins, J.P. and Roberts, C.M. 1992. Effects of recreational scuba diving on fore-reef slope communities of coral reefs. Biol. Conserv. 62, 171-178.
23. Rouphael, A.B. and Inglis, G. 1997. Impacts of recreational scuba diving at sites with different reef topographies. Biol. Conserv. 82, 329-336.
24. Dixon, J.A., Scura, L.F. and Van't Hof, T. 1993. Meeting ecological and economic goals: marine parks in the Caribbean. Ambio 22, 117-125.
25. Hawkins, J.P., Roberts, C.M., Van't Hof, T., de Meyer, K., Tratalos, J. and Aldam, C. 1997. Effects of recreational scuba diving on Caribbean coral and fish communities. Cons. Biol. 13, 888-897.
26. Hawkins, J.P. and Roberts, C.M. 1999. Estimating the carrying capacity of coral reefs for recreational scuba diving. Proc. 8th Coral Reef Symposium, 2, 1923-1926.
27. Diving is a strong growth area in the Caribbean tourism industry with predictions (17) that USD 1200 million will be generated annually by 2005.
28. James, A.N., Green, M.J.B. and Paine, J.R. 1999. A Global Review of Protected Areas Budgets and Staffing. WCMC - World Conservation Press, 46 pp.
29. Geoghagan, T. 1989. Innovative funding strategies for protected areas. Lesser Antilles Park and Protected Area News 2.
30. Leclerc, A. 1992. User fees in Natural Parks: issues and management. Parks for Life: Report of the IVth World Congress on National Parks and Protected Areas. IUCN The World Conservation Union, 186-187.
31. Leclerc, A. 1994. User fees in natural parks - issues and management. Parks 4, 2-12.
32. The participation of all the dive operators who returned questionnaires or participated in interviews is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks are due to Florence Jean and Rocio Matias for conducting the French and Spanish interviews, respectively and to Mark Spalding and Michelle Taylor for help in revising the manuscript. This work was funded by PADI Project Aware, grant 065.
33. The contents of this paper do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP or contributory organizations. The designations employed and the presentations do not imply the expressions of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP or contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authority, or conceming the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
34. First submitted 18 June 2001. Accepted for publication after revision 1 March 2002.