A healthy environment is the primary basis for the economically critical tourism and fishing industries in the Caribbean. However, these industries, coupled with traditional settlement and development activities, are exerting major influences on the complex mixture of sensitive ecosystems that comprise the Caribbean coastal zone. Awareness of the economic and social value of the marine environment and the coastal areas, and acknowledgment of the need to protect and preserve sensitive ecosystems, particularly coral reefs, has led each Caribbean country to establish marine protected areas or reserves. These areas are useful tools, not only for protecting and conserving threatened coastal and marine areas, but also for the direct involvement of local communities in the management and by channelling some of the economic benefits from the tourism industry to the local communities, thereby allowing them to directly benefit from it and creating incentives to preserve the environment.
English