Abstract

A pilot project based on the Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) concept was promoted and performed in the provinces of Montecristi and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, as part of the “Biodiversity for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean through EBM” project. The main outcome of first phase, implemented in 2016 - 2017, was the creation of an interinstitutional multidisciplinary working group and its training in the use of the Decision Support System (DSS) Software. These two essential results were achieved through the application of the PROGES EBM-DSS methodology in a stage of four specific workshops. A relevant difficulty of the first phase was related to the data availability, accessibility and format. In the second phase of the project (January - September 2019) the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) has created synergies and actions between different projects and institutions in order (i) to improve and update the database of the DSS, tackling the data collection issue occurred in the first phase, (ii) to strength the sustainability of the DSS and (iii) to enhance the effectiveness of the institution in the coastal-marine area management. MARENA has established interinstitutional agreements with the key-actors in order to ensure a periodic and continuative update of the data to be entered in the EBM-DSS. The monitoring of the key parameters and the specific management actions have been developed by the interactions among experts and institutional stakeholders in the process of the ecosystem cause-effect analysis based on the DSS methodology. The results of the data collection task, the field monitoring practices, and the above mentioned management activities will be finalised within September 2019. The scientific, technical and the institutional final outcomes will be identified and described.

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