Establishment of strategic enforcement plan/framework for improved management effectiveness, which can be applied to other protected areas

Résumé
Protected areas managers are entrusted with maintaining the values of protected areas, IUCN defined some of these as: maintaining functional natural ecosystems, serving as refuges for species, maintaining ecological processes, and serving as natural recreational space. Enforcement focuses on safeguarding these values. Belize Audubon Society developed a strategic enforcement plan, which provides step-by-step guidance in developing an enforcement strategy. It is designed to support strategies that improve compliance, ultimately reducing illegal activities to minimize negative impacts on natural resources and values. The focus is not just on the ground enforcement presence, but also strengthening partnerships and collaborations to achieve effective conservation success, and identifying supporting actions - community engagement, opportunities for diversified incomes, and improving community resilience to reduce the need for illegal incursions. The manual is a framework that can be adapted by different protected area managers.
Classifications
Région
Ampleur de la mise en œuvre
Ecosystème
Thème
Défis
Objectifs de développement durable
Objectifs d’Aichi
Défis
Protected areas in Belize are established with Statutory Instruments that describe the protected areas. Management plans then outline the values of the protected areas, be it for natural values, tourism or cultural values, timber resources, watersheds, biodiversity, or as a fisheries management tool. Human activities at times do not align with these values that protected area managers are tasked to maintain. One mechanism of addressing this is enforcement, which can help maintain values in the short, medium and long term.
Bénéficiaires
Protected areas manager—Government agencies—Other protected area managers
Blocs Constitutifs
Comment les blocs constitutifs interagissent-ils entre eux dans la solution?
As per our experience the success of a strategic enforcement plan relies on a few crucial pieces.
1. Design and development of plan must be a participatory process: having the right people in the room is key in getting the context right, developing realistic enforcement objectives and ultimately the best possible plan. Stakeholders and government agencies support can be attained in this process, without which they can either help or hinder processes.
2. Honesty: at all phases of the enforcement plan development the truth is essential. If not, we run the risk that the context, external/internal drivers, institutional capacity and needs are not properly accounted for and the value of the plan can be drastically reduced. Once we know where we stand, we can move forward.
3. Legislation: Having an appreciation of the legislations that governs protected areas and wildlife protection provides direction for jurisdiction, authority, and legal processes that protected areas managers can operate.
Impacts
Protected areas manager—the strategic enforcement plan provides a plan on how to best address enforcement issues via enforcement objectives. The plan systematizes enforcement within the organization. It outlines the needs of the organization and provides a short list for fundraising.
Government agencies—the strategic enforcement plan outlines areas of collaboration and shares guidelines of how the protected area manager will operate within the enforcement plan.
Other partners—the strategic enforcement plan is a tool that can be used by others to develop their own protected area level strategic enforcement plan.
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