Completing the Management Plan
By Ted Beuttler
NOS Office of the General Counsel
Bob Currul
State of Florida marine Patrol
Liz Moore
National Marine Sanctuary Program
April 29 - The delegation and our colleagues at KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife reconvened on Monday at the conference center at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve and started the day by reviewing where we were with the draft management plan for Aliwal Shoal. The group then brainstormed on a business plan for Aliwal Shoal MPA, which will essentially serve as an annual operating plan and budget for the MPA. As a group we then went through the document page by page to highlight where gaps and other areas that needed more work. These included:
- creating clear objectives for each section;
- clarifying the zoning plan so it is completely understandable by the public;
- drafting the site description portion of the draft management plan;
- overhauling the resource use plans;
- adding a section that describes KZN Wildlife’s existing performance indicator programs that will serve to measure Aliwal Shoal MPA’s effectiveness;
- streamlining the regulations;
- filling in missing information in various sections; and
- ensuring consistent formatting, since the document was essentially being drafted by 15 people.
The working groups begin their efforts. |
Working groups were then created to address these and more minor issues.
April 30 - On Tuesday, the working groups spent the day addressing the issues identified on Monday. By the end of the day, we had produced draft #6 and agreed to individually review it overnight.
May 1— Today, Wednesday, was our last real day to work together on the draft management plan. Engaging in what our hosts called “democratic editing,” the draft management plan was projected onto a screen and edited in a real-time, team approach. By the end of the day, the 40-pages-long draft #7 was completed. We kept thinking of improvements and new sections to be added, but we had simply run out of time and must be content with what we have accomplished.
May 2— The delegation left Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve today to return to Durban.
The U.S. delegation and their KZN Wildlife hosts prepare to leave Hilltop Camp at the Game Reserve and return to Durban. |
May 3— The U.S. delegation ended its three-week mission today with a closeout workshop in Durban. According to our hosts, we are leaving behind a useful management plan for the Aliwal Shoal MPA that will help protect this important area and serve as a model for the preparation of future management plans for MPAs in South Africa. We also leave behind respect, awe, and gratitude to our colleagues at KZN Wildlife; they have massive responsibilities and despite a dearth of resources and a difficult reorganization in their agency, they have stepped up to those duties with professionalism, dedication, enthusiasm, and a deep love for their country and its magnificent resources.
We take away from this experience new friends and colleagues, an appreciation for the common issues and opportunities we all have as MPA managers and practitioners, and several new techniques that we plan to try in our own management plan processes in the NMSP. And though we will all be glad to be home, we will miss South Africa.
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