Abstract

The Tobago Cays in St. Vincent and the Grenadines was declared a marine park in 1997. The Tobago Cays Marine Park (TCMP) is a 66 km2, non-extractive, Marine Protected Area (MPA). It is the only legislated marine park in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Since its re-launch in December 2006, a management plan has been developed and implemented and user fees are being collected. Limited socio-economic assessments have been conducted at the TCMP, usually as components of implemented projects, but have not been part of any on-going monitoring programme. The SocMon Caribbean methodology for socio-economic monitoring has been used to carry out surveys but due to limited capacity, the TCMP has been unable to carry out further assess-ments or initiate sustained monitoring. Therefore, regular socio-economic monitoring is not being conducted to assist with management decision-making and adaptive management at the site. As such, through a sub-grant from the CERMES-implemented, Socio-economic Monitoring by Caribbean Challenge MPA Managers project (CC SocMon), information has been collected that will help in the development of a core set of socio-economic indicators that may be used to guide and inform decision-making and management. Core indicators relevant to stakeholder perceptions of changes in conditions of marine resources; level of stakeholder participation and satisfaction in management; and stakeholder perceptions on the level of enforcement, compliance and protection within the MPA have been identified as the most important to the TCMP at this time. The 2006 re-launch date has been used as a reference point for current monitoring.

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