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Good practice Imported

Tobago Cays Marine Park — Self-Financed User-Fee Model for Marine Protection (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Tobago Cays · See the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 90% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A 5.7 km² lagoon marine park in the Grenadines is self-financed through visitor and mooring fees since its 1997 statutory establishment, supporting a 13-person authority with no government subsidy, even as a 2007 survey found live coral cover down to 5–30% and reefs declining.

5.7 km²
Marine park area
5–30 %
Live coral cover (2007)
50000
Annual cruise-ship passengers (per year)
8000
Annual yacht visits

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Tobago Cays Marine Park Authority (Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
Period
1997–present
Keywords
marine conservation, tourism, protected-area finance

Context

Established as a fisheries conservation area in 1987 and formalised as a statutory marine park under the 1997 Marine Parks Act, the Tobago Cays Marine Park protects a 1,400-acre (5.7 km²) sand-bottom lagoon in the southern Grenadines. The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines purchased the cays outright for US$1,025,000 in April 1999.

Activities

A ten-member Marine Park Board now oversees a 13-person Marine Park Authority. Since a 2006 relaunch, the park has been run as a self-financed protected area with no recurring government subsidy, charging compulsory user and mooring fees to an estimated 50,000 cruise-ship passengers a year (about 10,000 landing at the cays) and roughly 8,000 yachts; a 2022 e-payment system (built with GIZ, GCFI/MPA Connect and Reef Support) modernised fee collection.

Results

The Global Environment Facility-backed OPAAL project (from 2005, via the World Bank, FFEM and OAS) supported the park's institutional development, and it was listed as a regionally significant ecosystem under the SPAW Protocol in 2014. However, a 2007 reef survey found live coral cover of only 5–30% on most reefs and rated them in decline overall.

Conclusions

Stable finance alone has not reversed underlying reef degradation — a caution against treating user-fee sustainability as a proxy for ecological outcomes.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Self-financed via user/mooring fees since 2006; original government purchase cost US$1,025,000 (1999).
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Protected status since 1987/1997; self-financed model running continuously since 2006.
Staffing & skills
Marine Park Board (10 members), Marine Park Authority (13 staff), Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Conditions for success

  • Compulsory user and mooring fees generating self-financing without government subsidy
  • GEF-backed OPAAL institutional-development support (from 2005)
  • 2022 e-payment system (GIZ, GCFI/MPA Connect, Reef Support) modernising fee collection

Common failure modes

  • A 2007 reef survey found live coral cover of only 5–30% on most reefs and rated them in decline overall, showing stable finance has not reversed underlying reef degradation

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Own resources / municipal budget

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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