A Blueprint for Enhanced Area-based Marine Conservation in the Greater Antilles

Oceans 5 is supporting the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its partners to protect critical marine habitat in the Caribbean Basin’s Greater Antilles Marine Ecoregion. These waters provide safe passage for migratory marine species, contain key spawning sites that nurture areas as distant as the southern continental United States, and are vital to local and regional economies. 

While heavy human pressure and decades of extraction have led to severe declines in marine species as well as habitat degradation, there is growing political will to reverse these declines to safeguard food resources for future generations and to conserve biodiversity in the face of increasing threats, especially climate change. Capitalizing on this political momentum, the project will motivate and engage government to expand and create marine protected areas and strengthen capacities of local environmental agencies to implement and enforce effective protections.