Co-Designing Protected Areas Management with Small Island Developing States’ Local Stakeholders: A Case from Coastal Communities of Cabo Verde

• Published in: Sustainability
• Main Authors: Naya Sena, Ana Veiga, Adilson Semedo, Mara Abu-Raya, Rute Semedo, Iwao Fujii, Mitsutaku Makino
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2023
• Subjects: civil initiative; collective actions; co-management; community participation; protected area management; small island developing states; Environmental effects of industries and plants; TD194-195; Renewable energy sources; TJ807-830; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/su152015178; https://doaj.org/article/3caa2ee20d76430c9a0a935e4ef1e5e9

The Small Island Developing State, Cabo Verde, is one of the most important marine biodiverse hotspots in the North Atlantic. One of its national conservation strategies has been the declaration of protected areas, and currently, the country has 47 declared protected areas and only 26 have been fully implemented. The latest protected area, Baía do Inferno e Monte Angra Natural Park, is the first protected area proposed by a civil initiative, and the local people strongly support the declaration of this protected area. Therefore, this study aims to better understand the mechanisms behind strong local support, explore the lessons learned from this case and how it can help improve the implementation of other protected areas in Cabo Verde. We conducted 7 semi-structured interviews with previously identified community leaders and 480 questionnaires with the general population of the local communities. The results show that 78.6% of the questionnaire respondents chose co-management as the desired management model. We also found that non-governmental organizations and local leaders have played a crucial role in sharing knowledge with local populations and helping them to have a critical and informed view about the future implementation of the protected area.