Community based and multiple purpose protected areas: A model to select and manage protected areas with lessons from the Pacific Islands

Overuse and misuse of coastal systems in the Pacific Islands are causing natural resources to dwindle. During the past two decades, governments have attempted to establish protected areas in recognition of the limits to growth on islands and the negative impacts to the coastal zone fi om anthropogenic activities. However, protected areas have not always been successful because most models used by these governments to create protected areas have been flawed. This article presents a model to select and manage protected areas in the Pacific Islands that proposes two changes to traditional concepts of protected areas where the aims primarily have been to provide recreational opportunities, protect areas with aesthetics, and protect nature from humans. The two new concepts proposed by this model are community based decision making and permitting multiple purpose protected areas whose main goals are determined by the local community: (1) Representatives of interest groups and local level agencies collaborate to coordinate the processes to establish and administer protected areas, and to make decisions; (2) the model's process to select and manage a protected area considers the social, economic, environmental, and political context. Protected areas established using this model permit multiple uses that are compatible with the goals of the protected area. This method presents a comprehensive process to establish protected areas. Examples are drawn from several political entities of the Pacific Islands: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Philippines, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Republic of Palau, Hawaii, and American Samoa.