Coastal & Marine Protected Areas

SITUATION

With a coastline of more than 7500 km, India is endowed with a diversity of coastal and marine ecosystems. These ecosystems provide numerous services and benefits including fisheries, coastal tourism, and other vital livelihood activities, as well as protection provided by mangroves and sand dunes against natural disasters such as tsunamis and cyclones.

The unsustainable anthropogenic pressures emanating from various activities are proving to be detrimental to this ecosystem, which are compounded by other factors namely climate change, increased incidences of natural disasters etc. This calls for an immediate focus on the protection and better management of this critical ecosystem.

Recognizing the importance of sustainably using coastal and marine biodiversity, the Governments of India and Germany have fostered a partnership for the implementation of dedicated programs aimed at enhanced conservation of India’s biodiversity in line with the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD).

OBJECTIVE

The Conservation and Sustainable Management and Coastal and Marine Protected Areas (CMPA) project had the following objective of improve conservation and sustainable use of the marine biological diversity in the pilot protected areas while taking into account the economic well-being of the local population.

APPROACH

The CMPA project focussed on three main approaches:

• Development of participatory processes for the conservation and the management of natural resources and their implementation in designated areas along the Indian coast.
• Facilitate capacity development of key sectors and stakeholders crucial for management of coastal and marine biodiversity and protected areas. The measures were implemented at national and state level together with partners to ensure their sustainability.
• Facilitate a dedicated information, education and communication program to sensitize key stakeholders for conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The CMPA project was being implemented at seven sites in four states - Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Please visit our Where We Work section to find out more about the project sites.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The CMPA project worked towards the development and demonstration of implementable models for participatory conservation and management of biodiversity which included:

• The formation of Biodiversity Management Committees at a local level in order to document traditional knowledge in the form of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs), which eventually help in the establishment of Biodiversity Heritage Sites.
• It developed curricula for the present and future officers, both senior and field staff of the forest departments dealing with the protection of coastal and marine biodiversity. This was achieved in cooperation with Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) and the Department of Forest Education (DFE).
• Devised a dedicated information, education and communication programme at all project sites involving local partners, stakeholders and civil society for enhanced knowledge and sensitization on conservation of biodiversity in coastal and marine areas.
• Set up a state of the art interpretation cum education centers for The Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary in Gujarat, the Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary in Goa and the Velas Dabhol Coast in Maharashtra with the aim to create awareness on coastal biodiversity.
• Supporting research projects and disseminating information on a range of biodiversity issues of national importance, assessment of marine national parks, importance and management of seagrass, conservation of marine mammals in Indian seas and participatory management of diverse estuaries.
• Development of training handbooks and trainer’s manuals for practicing journalists, graduate and post-graduate media students, aimed at integrating issues relevant to coastal and marine biodiversity and protected area management into existing curricula. The training material is available on this website.
• The project partnered with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to develop a Framework for Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of Coastal and Marine Protected Areas in India and an “Evaluator’s Guide: Applying the Framework for Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Coastal and Marine Protected Areas in India” . The Framework & Evaluator’s Guide can be downloaded from this link.

CONTRIBUTION TO AGENDA 2030

The CMPA project supported the Indian partners via capacity building and awareness raising in achieving the SDG 14 to sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems while taking into account the economic well-being of the local population

RESOURCES

All publications, training materials and movies of this project can be accessed via the resource section on this website, by selecting the topic "Coastal and Marine Protected Area".

Here are our partners for the CMPA project.

Please visit our Where We Work section to find out more about the project sites.