Abstract

In 2013 The Nature Conservancy requested the UN Environment Programme in the Caribbean to coordinate a small grant program specific for the OECS countries as part of the Eastern Caribbean Marine Managed Areas project funded by the German government to increase the capacity to manage marine managed areas in the 6 countries of the Eastern Caribbe-an: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. After a process of consultation with all actors involved (including each country focal points from relevant government agencies and the local NGOs that would eventually manage the projects), the program started in early 2014 with the establishment of the project procedure and the development of project proposals. Until March 2017, around $220,000 were awarded to each country with numerous benefits, namely: area management staff, fishers and other stakeholders trained and assisted by regional experts, environmental policy drafted, facilities built and equipped, biological and socioeconomic surveys implemented and monitoring programs established, local communities better educated of the importance of managing coastal resources sustainably, local and international governmental and non-governmental environmental agencies closer collaborators. This paper examines the successes, shortcomings and lessons learnt from the implementation of the CaMPAM-ECMMAN SMG, the largest implemented by CaMPAM.

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