Marine protected area program master plan: a manual to guide the establishment and management of no-take marine protected areas

Abstract

The Marine Protected Area (MPA) Program Master Plan is meant to be a simple and easy to follow step-by-step roadmap to assist the American Samoa Government (ASG), Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources' MPA Program in meeting the goal to ensure protection of unique, various and diverse coral reef habitat and spawning stocks. This will also assist efforts to meet the Governor's mandate of protecting 20% of American Samoa's coral reefs by declaring no-take MPAs. The MPA Program Master Plan will provide new Program Leaders with a description of the activities that the MPA Program staff has been involved with, along with a vision of what is to come, and a foundation upon which to move forward. This structured guide will allow MPA Program Leaders to track their progress towards creating no-take MPAs. It is hoped that this plan will help to minimize the loss of institutional memory due to high staff turnover. The Master Plan will help the local staff to understand what activities the MPA Program plans to conduct. By having a plan, the MPA Program can be more transparent with the public by announcing opportunities for the public to be involved in implementing no-take MPAs. This long-term plan will help to guide the writing of future grant proposals and can assist the coordination of activities with other natural resource agencies and entities. This Master Plan is written with the assumption that the MPA Program staff and budget will remain at about the same level throughout implementation (1 program leader and 2- 3 staff, plus volunteers). If opportunities arise to increase staff and funding, the timeline may change for activities. Also, additional activities may be undertaken.