Abstract
This paper details the process by which the Caribbean island of Barbuda created comprehensive marine spatial planning regulations. The Barbuda Council (the island's governing body), with invited support from the Waitt Institute, navigated complex tradeoffs between spatial uses to design and legally codify zoning for their entire marine jurisdiction. After a year of intensive community engagement under this Blue Halo Initiative, regulations were adopted in August 2014 that established zones for sanctuaries, fish net prohibitions, anchoring/mooring, and shipping. Key data used included a habitat map and a heatmap of fishing value. Barbudans designed all zones, with technical support, using the software program SeaSketch. Throughout the process, the Council incorporated input from fishers and other community members, seeking a final zoning design that would minimize negative impacts on livelihoods and earn broad community support. The final zoning plan balances economic, conservation, and cultural uses. It includes thirteen zones and meets the pre-agreed goals of protecting one-third of the waters overall and approximately one-third of each habitat type. The consultation process included seven community consultation meetings, five fisher consultation meetings, and two meetings of a stakeholder committee. The initiative is now in the implementation phase, however Hurricane Irma devastated Barbuda in September 2017, creating substantial challenges for ongoing implementation. Overall lessons learned include the importance of being flexible and transparent, considering enforcement from the outset, building political will through documenting stakeholder and expert perspectives, and not allowing a pursuit of unanimous agreement to hinder progress.