A roundtable on marine protected area finance: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean on four keys to success for improving financial sustainability

MPAs around the world are often limited by insufficient financial resources for enforcement, monitoring, and other activities. One of the greatest challenges to financial sustainability is often limited financial expertise, or financial capacity, among practitioners. Financial capacity is important for daily activities such as budgeting and management of financial resources to ensure that available funds are effectively deployed, as well as to implement new financial mechanisms to supplement income. Peer-to-peer learning where knowledge is shared among fellow MPA practitioners and experts can be an effective way of sharing knowledge on subjects such as financial sustainability. We hosted a knowledge sharing session at IMPAC5 in February 2023 that brought MPAConnect members, sustainable MPA financing advisors including from Grant Thornton’s Impact House, and MPA managers and funders from Belize, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Drawing upon their insights and expertise, we review crosscutting topics that we propose as crucial levers for improving financial sustainability; diversifying income and innovating MPA mechanisms, strengthening internal financial capacity, leveraging partnerships to support financial sustainability, and aligning policies to remove barriers to entry. This paper is intended to: (i) provide a review of the discussion for practitioners who could not attend the IMPAC5 session in person, (ii) offer an in-depth exploration of the strategies and lessons presented, and (iii) inspire further research and action to drive the field of MPA finance forward. In addition to the main subjects, we emphasize the importance of proper planning – including financial planning – and managing expectations when pursuing new financial mechanisms.