A New Tool to Evaluate, Improve, and Sustain Marine Protected Area Financing Built on a Comprehensive Review of Finance Sources and Instruments

Abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs) require sustained funding to provide sustained marine protection. Up until now government budgets, multi- and bi-lateral aid, and philanthropic grants have been commonly relied upon to finance the management and enforcement of MPAs. But new funding mechanisms, such as impact investments or blue carbon, are increasingly applied and developed. Here, we present a semi-structured review that identifies 11 or more sources of finance, 21 financial instruments and more than 75 potential combinations thereof that show the current diversity of financial mechanisms available to support MPA establishment and operations. Based on the review, we developed nearly 100 indicators reflecting environmental, governmental, socioeconomic, and management characteristics that can inform the appropriateness, and corresponding strengths and weaknesses, of applying these financial mechanisms to any given MPA. The outputs provide a series of recommendations for implementing new funding mechanisms and ways to improve the sustainability of in-place mechanisms. The findings were compiled into a replicable framework and excel tool that was pilot tested in May 2021 for Parque Nacional Natural Corales de Profundidad in Colombia that identified potential ways to improve upon financial mechanisms, including, hiring a full-time manager and potential alternative mechanisms like biodiversity offsets from fossil fuel exploration and exploitation, among several others. The research also identified barriers for implementing financial mechanisms that reflect broader systemic challenges for MPA finance worldwide.

Charting the systemic and cascading impacts of climate change on marine food systems and human health

“…The Global Fund for Coral Reefs, for example, supports the development and acceleration of revenue-generating activities that sustainably finance the mitigation of the underlying drivers of coral reef degradation 44. Other financial mechanisms include blue bonds, debt-for-nature swaps and biodiversity offsets 45…”

“…44 Other financial mechanisms include blue bonds, debt-for-nature swaps and biodiversity offsets. 45 …”

“…44 Other financial mechanisms include blue bonds, debt-for-nature swaps and biodiversity offsets. 45 Considering that climate-impacted reefs tend to support less fish biodiversity and flatten food pyramids, preserving and supporting diverse local food systems to thrive through locally relevant and adaptive fisheries management will become increasingly important. 17 According to Free et al, climate-adaptive fisheries reforms would support the health of world fisheries and sustain future harvests and financial gains for all scenarios except the high-emissions RCP 8.5.…”

A Systematic Review and Global Trends on Blue Carbon and Sustainable Development: A Bibliometric Study from 2012 to 2023

“…A wide range of topics are discussed in these articles, ranging from ocean carbon cycles to ecosystem health. One article was published in 2015 [69], another in 2016 [100], one in 2019 [101], one in 2021 [102], one in 2023 [103] and the remaining eight in 2022 [104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111]. Frontiers in Marine Science has contributed to the field at various times, which is essential to its continued growth.…”

“…Blue carbon as a new funding mechanism can be applied and developed to the sustained funding for marine protected areas (MPAs); implementing many of these potential solutions (blue bonds, debt-for-nature swaps) have some capacity requirements [111].…”