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Photo of boats in the ocean near to the shore

4 ways for Barbados to optimize its Marine Spatial Planning 

June 23, 2023 by Viviana Alva-Hart - Jennifer Doherty-Bigara - Jehroum Wood Leave a Comment


The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) held in Montreal in December 2022 concluded with strong support for ocean conservation and biodiversity. Currently, 17% of land and 8% of marine areas are under protection and there was strong consensus on the need for effective conservation and management of at least 30% of the world’s land, coastal areas, and oceans.  

Barbados has taken one step closer to this commitment with the launch of its Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) process in January 2023 under the leadership of its Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU). This key milestone is one of the many steps the Government will take to develop and designate Marine Protected Areas. 

Marine Spatial Plans are a value-added tool to foster engaged policies for a paradigm shift with an integrated, multisectoral and participatory dynamic. The results allow for ecological, economic, and social targets that enhance resilience and inclusiveness.  

To support the Government of Barbados, we have identified the following key areas that are essential in any marine spatial planning process: 

1. Develop a knowledge-based approach

To develop robust marine spatial plans, countries must use the best available data and globally recognized best practices. However, they usually face many challenges as the information required for the preparation, establishment and monitoring of their marine spatial plans can be scattered, deficient or non-existent. For this reason, it is important to map and identify the existing data and the main entities responsible, as well as gaps and how they can be filled.  

It is essential to have access to accurate and up-to-date information about the environment and its uses. Data can come from in situ sources (e.g. surveys and monitoring), remote sensing (satellite and UAV imagery) and numerical modelling. This information is used to create spatial maps which provide a comprehensive overview of the environment, its uses and potential conflicts.  

Data can be expensive to collect and there are often gaps in existing datasets if they are not updated or completed due to limited resources. To overcome the challenge of limited data, a MSP Data Roadmap can be used to identify gaps in knowledge and prioritize data collection activities that meet the plan’s objectives. For example, one key challenge for this component can rely on the need for significant human and financial resources to assess natural capital. And while countries may request grants to enhance how they manage data; they will need to build local capacity to sustainably continue gathering and analyzing the data needed to develop an MSP. 

2. Ensure a climate-biodiversity smart Marine Spatial Plan

During 2020 and 2021, the IDB worked closely with the Government of Barbados in the update of its NDC.

The climate crisis is real for small island developing states (SIDs) and aligning MSPs to their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will be critical to ensure coherency and build upon existing knowledge and commitments.  

The mitigation of carbon footprints and resilience must be built, first by finding solutions that will strengthen ecosystems and communities as they face the impact of climate change; and by pursuing efforts to document and protect biodiversity; recognize the ocean’s capacity to be a major carbon sink; and explore mitigation options such as offshore renewables. Furthermore, reducing coastal groups’ exposure to climate change and finding new systems to protect or diversify their income is essential. Ocean-based solutions need to be low-carbon and resilience-driven as they will also foster community ownership of the MSP process. 

3. Promote dialogue and effective participation of stakeholders

A key component of a marine spatial planning process and the resulting plan is engagement and constant dialogue with the different users of the marine space, understanding their incentives and requests so as to include them in the planning and map synergies. The Government will engage with academia, NGOs, the private sector and more with the objective of finding the most suitable allocation of the marine space that will allow for conservation to take place as well as for sustainable development to be created. 

4. Facilitate the coordinated support of all agencies 

International partners are eager to help and continue building capacities. With this in mind, the Marine Spatial Plan will serve as an important reference resource in aligning all efforts to the national vision and catalyze the needed human and financial resources, while ensuring local ownership. 

As a leading development partner of the region, the IDB is uniquely positioned to promote knowledge-sharing and lessons learned on ocean policy and marine spatial planning. Such coordination efforts could benefit ongoing marine protection and conservation actions in countries like Barbados, Belize and Ecuador. 

The Ocean Decade is taking shape and we need bold moves, like the commitment being demonstrated by Barbados. It is critical to have the appropriate policies to protect the ocean and to better assess it as a nature capital asset.  Learn more about the promises and pitfalls of developing ocean policy in this hybrid panel discussion hosted by the IDB and the Barbados Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) on World Oceans Day, June 8, 2023.

Also check out:

  • Barbados taking its Blue commitments ahead with innovative deal
  • 3 projects to celebrate International Oceans Day
  • Environmental Finance recognizes IDB’s financial transactions in Barbados and Uruguay
  • Strengthening environmental institutional capacity in Barbados

Filed Under: Agribusiness, Barbados, biodiversity, Caribbean, Climate Change, Climate Change & Environment, Environmental and Climate Change, The Blue Economy Tagged With: Marine Spatial Planning

Viviana Alva-Hart

Viviana Alva Hart is the IDB Group’s Representative in Barbados since September 2021. She joined the IDB in 2008 as a Rural Development Specialist in Panama and most recently served as Chief of Operations in Argentina. In previous roles as Lead Specialist in the IDB’s Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division, she managed a large operational portfolio focused on agriculture and disaster risk management. Prior to joining the IDB, she spent more than 10 years in the Ministry of Agriculture in Peru, managing agricultural policy and public investment projects and serving as the Executive Director of the Support Services Program for Access to Rural Markets (PROSAAMER). She has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Instituto Ortega y Gasset at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spain and a first degree in Agricultural Sciences and Zootechnics from the National Agrarian University-La Molina in Lima, Peru.

Jennifer Doherty-Bigara

Jennifer Doherty-Bigara is a policy advisor and climate change specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank, based in the country office of Barbados. With over ten years of experience in the sustainability agenda, she has mainly focused on climate governance and national and local climate change policies (NDCs, LTS, SDGs), fiscal policy and green budgeting, climate finance and long-term planning exercises with an adaptation approach. Jennifer has gained analytical and operational knowledge advising governments through the coordination of the NDC Invest Platform and afterwards mainstreaming climate change considerations in the IDB portfolio of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, ensuring the design and implementation of sustainable development projects. She also gained key insights as an external appointee in the Agence Française de Developpement (AFD), coordination the efforts of the Adapt ‘Action Platform in the Gulf of Guinea and the Indian Ocean. She has also worked on climate finance and coordinated fundraising efforts as part of the SECCI Funds, ACL, PROADAPT, and bilateral donations. Jennifer holds a master´s in International Development Policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy (MSPP), University of Georgetown and a Master’s in International Affairs from Sciences Po Toulouse. Follow Jennifer on Twitter: @jdohertybigara @jdohertybigara

Jehroum Wood

Jehroum Wood is a Sustainability & Environmental Management professional with expertise in assessment and monitoring. He specialises in the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Planning Techniques for Socio-economic Monitoring and Natural Resource Management. He has worked on Environmental Research, Assessment, Monitoring and Certification projects in the Caribbean. His work takes specific focus on multi-stakeholder benefits at the community level. His experience throughout the Eastern Caribbean provides him with knowledge of a diverse array of practical environmental management strategies and their efficacy in Small Island Developing States. Through this environmental work he has begun to develop outreach and education products for sharing Caribbean-specific environmental knowledge. He has also worked on communication and capacity-building projects of various scales with specific focus on training and education in environmental and natural resource management.

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