Focus of Work
The Government of The Bahamas, through the Bahamas Debt Conversion Project for Marine Conservation, engaged Seatone Consulting to lead a management effectiveness evaluation of all 70 marine protected areas (MPAs), building on Seatone’s 2014 national assessment. Working with the Office of the Prime Minister, Bahamas National Trust, Department of Marine Resources, Forestry Unit, Bahamas Protected Areas Fund, and other partners, Seatone designed and is facilitating a national process using the IUCN Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) to evaluate management strengths, identify priority needs, and strengthen long-term stewardship across the country’s MPA network.
Our Approach
Seatone designed a phased, highly participatory assessment process balancing scientific rigor with practical implementation across a geographically dispersed MPA network. Working with Bahamian agencies, Seatone developed a three-tiered methodology prioritizing sites based on ecological importance, management complexity, available information, and logistical considerations, allowing all 70 MPAs to be assessed within the project timeframe. Through multi-day national workshops, Seatone guides interagency teams through evidence-based scoring, maintains quality-control procedures, incorporates stakeholder perspectives, and works with management authorities on data validation, reporting, and future training to build lasting national capacity.
Key Outcomes
The project has established the first coordinated, nationwide baseline for evaluating management effectiveness exclusively across The Bahamas’ entire marine protected area network. Through a structured, collaborative process, participating agencies are completing assessments while building consistency in scoring, strengthening interagency collaboration, and identifying management strengths, information gaps, and priority actions for future investment. Beyond producing a baseline for 70 MPAs, the project is creating a repeatable evaluation framework and will soon conduct action planning workshops apply insights gained from the process to guide conservation planning across one of the Caribbean’s largest protected area systems.
