Effective Marine Protected Area Activities for the Caribbean (EMPAC) Project

The Caribbean marine environment supports more than 10% of the world’s coral reefs, alongside extensive mangrove forests and seagrass beds. These ecosystems underpin food security, livelihoods, economic stability, and climate resilience across the region. Yet they face growing pressures, while many Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have limited financial and technical capacity to respond.

Key pressures include:

• Overexploitation and overfishing: Depletion of marine species and disruption of reef ecosystems.
• Climate change: Rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, severe storms, and stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD).
• Pollution and coastal development: Runoff, plastic pollution, untreated sewage, and coastal development are degrading marine habitats and water quality.
• Management and financing gaps: Many MPAs lack adequate long-term financing, staffing, enforcement, and technical monitoring capacity, limiting effective management.

Globally, only 8.2% of the ocean is protected, and an estimated 2.7% is effectively managed. This underscores the need not only to expand marine protection, but to ensure that protected areas are adequately financed and effectively managed.

The Caribbean has important foundations for action, including strong political commitment to 30×30, established conservation trust funds, and regional institutions capable of mobilizing and deploying resources. However, significant gaps remain in capital at scale, enabling policy and governance conditions, and sustainable financing for effective MPA management.

A growing window of opportunity is also emerging. Global momentum around 30×30, greater alignment between climate and biodiversity finance, increased recognition of SIDS vulnerability, an evolving regional ocean finance architecture, and a maturing blue bond market create new opportunities to strengthen marine conservation across the Caribbean.

EMPAC responds by strengthening the enabling conditions, financing, partnerships, and institutional capacity needed to translate regional commitments into effective and sustainable marine management.

EMPAC is being delivered through three key components:

1. Advance regional political engagement on ocean conservation targets
   Strengthen regional collaboration and political commitment towards achieving shared ocean conservation and management goals.
2. Scale sustainable financing for MPA management
   Support innovative and sustainable financing approaches to strengthen the long-term financial sustainability of MPAs and other marine managed areas.
3. Enhance MPA management capacity
   Strengthen institutional and technical capacity to support more effective management of MPAs and MMAs across the region.

Through these activities, EMPAC supports Caribbean countries in advancing UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water) and contributing to the Global Biodiversity Framework’s 30×30 target, while fostering stronger regional partnerships and more sustainable approaches to marine conservation.

Throughout the project, CBF has delivered a series of high-level interventions to strengthen policy, regional coordination, and sustainable financing for marine 30×30. Key results include:

1. MPA Gap Analysis

CBF conducted an in-depth assessment of the policy, institutional, capacity, and financing gaps affecting MPAs across the Caribbean. The findings provided an evidence base for identifying priorities and informing subsequent regional interventions.

The analysis identified significant gaps in financing, institutional capacity, and governance, including an estimated US$576 million annual financing gap for marine conservation across the Caribbean.

Key barriers to achieving 30×30

Reliance on short-term funding and limited revenue retention

Limited data and monitoring for decision making

Weak legal and policy frameworks

Fragmented governance and weak regional coordination

Gaps in staffing, equipment, and enforcement

Misalignment with climate & blue economy strategies

2. Actioning Blue 30×30 Declaration

In 2025, CBF partnered with regional ocean leaders to develop Actioning Blue: A Caribbean 30×30 Vision and Roadmap for Our Ocean. The Caribbean-led declaration provides a shared regional framework for advancing marine 30×30 by connecting global biodiversity commitments with coordinated regional action and sustainable financing.

Building on the momentum of the Caribbean Challenge Initiative and endorsed through the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the declaration has since been adopted by 15 Caribbean governments and strategic partners, strengthening political and regional support for coordinated action toward 30×30.

Anguilla

Antigua & Barbuda

Belize

British Virgin Islands

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Grenada

Guadeloupe

Jamaica

Martinique

Montserrat

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Martin

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

3. Caribbean MPA Finance Facility

Launched in June 2026, the Caribbean MPA Finance Facility provides a regional platform to mobilize and deploy funding at scale and accelerate progress toward the Global Biodiversity Framework’s 30×30 target.

The Facility responds to persistent financing gaps by pooling resources, coordinating regional investment, and aligning funding with national priorities to support long-term conservation outcomes.

Designed to mobilize US$250 million through endowment, sinking, or hybrid financing structures, the Facility will provide catalytic funding through a network of nationally rooted Conservation Trust Funds and local partners. By leveraging existing institutions and systems, it aims to reduce transaction costs for small island developing states (SIDS) and move beyond fragmented project-based grants toward a more coordinated and scalable blended-finance approach.

The Facility will support three broad areas:

• Enabling conditions: Strengthening policy and regulatory frameworks, institutional capacity, and sustainable financing mechanisms for marine conservation.
• MPA establishment and effective management: Supporting the establishment, expansion, and effective management of MPAs and other area-based conservation measures.
• Strategic conservation priorities: Financing monitoring, disaster and emergency response, and other emerging conservation needs.