This paper details a marine zoning process for the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis in the Eastern Caribbean, incorporating the use of marine spatial planning (MSP) and marine zoning to address multiple uses in the same ocean space. Multiple uses include coastal protection, food security, tourism amenities, biodiversity protection and climate change adaptation. MSP is an approach facilitating a balanced co-existence between marine sectors with competing interests and attempts to combine marine management strategies by describing the local context, outlining key activities and discusses planning process outcomes. Key activities include engaging stakeholders, establishing clear objectives, building a multi-objective geodatabase, generating tools to assist stakeholders and decision makers consider zoning plan options and using a participatory process to outline zone locations. The paper concludes that this approach helped provide an integrated view of marine space and uses for St. Kitts and Nevis and the stakeholders were able to develop a shared vision for their waters. There were also challenges throughout the MSP process and lessons learned were generated to help improve future marine planning and zoning process.
Author: Agostini, V. N., S.W. Margles, J.K. Knowles, S.R. Schill, R.J. Bovino, and R.J. Blyther
Year: 2015
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Email for the full article: resilience@tnc.org
Ocean & Coastal Management 104: 1-10. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2014.11.003
