• The role of civil society organizations (CSOs) is a topic for discussion in the working groups of some Protected Areas, so it is very important to clearly define their role from the beginning. CSOs can e.g. support as technical advisers, contribute information, support with logistics, follow-up on agreements and facilitate communication between the participants of the different institutions.
• Common indicators that all members of a working group refer to, encourage the will to work together.
• Regular meetings and using virtual communication proofed useful.
• Sometimes it is better to have voluntary commitments of participation instead of having agreements that require legal review by every organization involved.

• In some cases authorities preferred to receive the survey via mail so they could answer to it in a written form.
• Although the interview questions can be shared with the interviewee prior to the interview, it is important that the interview is performed by an interviewer to make sure that all questions are answered.
• Some of the governmental agencies, especially the military ones, are not able to provide detailed information on their involvement in surveillance and enforcement. However, given it is important to know how they participated, it is suggested to generate general information on their involvement through interviews with other authorities.

To maintain economic incentives is very expensive and in the long term not very sustainable. Economic agreements can be a very good strategy to engage a group of people quickly in conservation actions and, as happened in this case, result in the recovery of an overexploited population auch as the spiny lobster. For the success of the agreement it is essential to establish a monitoring system, conduct trainings and support the stakeholders involved in order to ensure that once the agreement has ended the fishermen are not falling back to their old behaviour. Currently, the direct sale and the higher prices they receive for the environmentally responsible products are the primary incentive for adapting sustainability and conservation measures. This agreement ran for two years in which a recovery of the population and an increase in size of the spiny lobster at the Cape of San Francisco was determined.

This is an initiative which has been developed over a period of about five years with encountering some difficulties along the way. It was a long process which required patience and persistence before seeing differences in fishing behaviour. The biggest challenge was in working with a group of people who did not see the benefit for being organized in a union and who are used to certain extraction techniques having a free access to the resources without any kind of regulation. This initiative shows how projects working on behavioural changes and the raising awareness for more environmentally friendly uses, can take several years and need to consider the different rhythm and philosophy of the stakeholders involved and ensure their responsibility and commitment in decision-making in this process.

It is important to have technical support for a long-term monitoring process to establish a continuous monitoring system. This means, not only including and analysing new Information on fisheries but also communicating information and results back to the commnunities to suppport the empowerment and ownership of the fishermen in this process. It is important that the actual resource users are involved in the process and understand their contributions to the fishing monitoring results.

GIS analyses were useful to determine the spatial allocation of the sea in a way that maximizes societal benefits and mitigates possible conflicts. Although the system was used to support transboundary MSP, inadequate sub-regional governance mechanisms constrain the implementa¬tion of the marine zoning plan by either country. Although framework legislation and national environmental management strategies are in place, formal institutional systems for national and transboundary marine management need to be clearly established. The realisation of effective transboundary cooperation and regional governance is needed to determine the appropriate and feasible institutional arrangements. Likewise, the fostering of environmental political will is essential for the development and implementation of new environmental management policies, plans and institutions.

The usefulness of integrating interdisciplinary information and multiple sources of knowledge for marine spatial planning is well documented, yet the actual framework and practical methodologies for acquiring holistic ecosystem-based information is lacking. We found a participatory GIS approach useful for identifying, collecting, integrating and understanding interdisciplinary information. Practical GIS analyses were applied to produce relevant ecosystem-based information. Additionally, the application of a participatory GIS approach (in terms of both information integration and visualization) proved beneficial in the conduction and presentation of information generated in ways that increased stakeholder understanding, thus supporting marine governance. Despite the overall success of participatory GIS, the maintenance of the MarSIS will require additional capacity building, particularly in terms of GIS skills.

PGIS resulted in the production of comprehensive and accessible information tailored to the needs of the Grenada Bank stakeholders. Collaborative data and information gathering served to: identify existing information; build stakeholder capacity in the understanding of the marine environment and related human uses; provide credibility to local knowledge; increase confidence and ownership in the information produced; and underscore the role stakeholders can and should play in marine governance. Communication and information exchange are important aspects of this building block and should not be underestimated. Providing access to all data, maps, and information via a public access website supported transparency and inclusiveness and served to strengthen the capacity and ownership of information by stakeholders.

Participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) resulted in the production of comprehensive and accessible information tailored to the needs of the Grenada Bank stakeholders. The PGIS process also strengthened cross-scale linkages, promoted a transparent and inclusive working environment and built capacity across a transboundary scale. Despite the overall success of PGIS in this context, there are constraints that should be considered. First, the cost of PGIS should be carefully evaluated. Accordingly the timeframe and objectives of a PGIS should be well defined and level of participation to be expected clearly elaborated before undertaking a similar endeavor. In this building block, stakeholder engagement was time-consuming, yet instrumental in fostering a collaborative work environment and creating buy-in.