The what?
The Soufriere Marine Management Area, or SMMA for short, is an example of how a
fragile coastal environment can be managed. The Soufriere Coast is a stretch of coastline on the west coast of St. Lucia, an island in the Southern Caribbean, approximately 400km north of South America.
St. Lucia (circled, bottom right), in the Caribbean
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| Source: By Kmusser (Own work, all data from Vector Map.) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
The island of St. Lucia, showing the location of Soufriere
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| Source: By Burmesedays [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
What is the Soufriere Coast like?
The SMMA organisation describes Soufriere and the region around it as:
"...a picturesque rural town, located on the southwest coast of the island of St. Lucia. This area is remarkable for the richness and diversity of its landscapes and natural resources, including mountains, rainforest, rivers, active volcanism and coral reefs."
The region has a population of
just under 8000, and the area's economy is based on a mix of agriculture (farming), fishing and tourism. Tourism has become more and more important,
and the region has many resorts and hotels, many of them focussing on diving and yachting to attract tourists.
Soufriere Town
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| Source: Bgabel at wikivoyage shared [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
What is fragile about the Soufriere Coast?
St Lucia is home to a
number of coral reefs. Coral reefs are
important but fragile ecosystems. They are known as the rainforests of the sea.
Like rainforests, they are home to many species of plants and animals. Unfortunately, coral
reefs are at risk from human activities such as fishing, farming and diving.
They are also badly affected by warming seas caused by global warming. A study in 2008
estimated that 50% of the world's coral reefs had been so badly affected by
human activity that they could be dead in 40 years.
Coral reef on the Soufriere Coast
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Source: By WRI Staff (Reef 247) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
So what were humans doing to the Soufriere Coast?
In the 1980s and 1990s, it became clear that the coastline was facing a number of problems.
1. The water was becoming less clean (water degradation), putting human health at risk, as well as the coral reefs. Much of this was the result of sewage and waste being dumped directly into the sea.
2. Over-fishing (too many fish being caught) near the shore was reducing the number of fish, harming the fishing industry (no fish = no fishing) and putting the coral at risk (the fish eat harmful algae from the reef. No fish = more algae).
3. Sedimentation from the land (soil washing into the sea), leading to sediment covering the coral and killing it).
4. Polluted (dirty) beaches.
The damage caused to the beaches and the coral had environmental impacts for plants and animals, but it also had impacts for science - the biodiversity (wide number of plants and animals) of coral reefs makes them key to scientific research - and for tourism.
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There were also many conflicts including:
1. Conflicts between commercial dive operators (people making money taking tourists diving) and fishermen over use of the reefs.
2. Conflicts between yacht owners and fishermen when yachts anchored (parked) in fishing areas.
3. Conflicts between fishermen, locals and hotel owners when hotel owners tried to keep access to the beaches for their guests only.
What was the response?
In 1992, various organisations in St. Lucia, including the National Trust for St. Lucia and the Soufriere Regional Development Foundation (an
NGO) got together with the government and USAID to try to:
a. Identify problems and conflicts
b. Map the area and agree on how different sections of coastline should be used
c. Put in place a way of solving conflicts through discussion
This led to the organisations agreeing to tackle four main issues:
1. Controlling the increased yachting along the coast
2. Setting up marine reserves (nature reserves in the sea)
3. Developing fishing
4. Managing pollution
How did they do this?
They
zoned the coast. As the map below shows, they divided the coast into different sections, to be used in different ways. The green areas are nature reserves, the pink areas for fishing, the purple areas for yachting and yellow areas to be used by everyone. They also marked particular sites for SCUBA diving (see the key) and for recreation and leisure. This was called the Sourfriere Marine Management Area (SMMA).
A map of the SMMA zoning
They banned damaging fishing methods and taught the fishermen less damaging fishing techniques. They also provided loans for fishermen to buy boats and equipment so they could fish further out at sea, where they would not damage the coral.
They 'hoovered' up sediment from the corals and they carry out monitoring to check how the coral and fish are doing, and how clean the water is.
Was this successful?
Yes -
- Monitoring has shown improvements, especially when all the groups in the area have been involved in the planning and been kept informed of what is being done and why.
- There is some evidence that more fishing is happening away from the corals and out at sea.
- Some endangered corals have returned to the coastline.
No -
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