Conservation Workers Receive Training in 3-Day METT Workshop

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – 36 environmental professionals received certificates after completing a Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) Training at the Office of the Prime Minister.

The release further reads:

The workshop, hosted by the Bahamas Project for Marine Conservation (BPMC), marked the culmination of several months of assessing 70 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across The Bahamas.

The BPMC has 11 milestones to achieve over the 15-year initiative. The METT is milestone 3 and focuses on developing management plans for marine protected areas and identifying a baseline against which the project will be measured over the 15 years.

The Project Management Unit (PMU), based in the Office of the Prime Minister, oversaw workshop and meeting planning throughout the year to meet the project deliverables. Jacklyn Chisholm-Lightbourne, PMU Monitoring & Evaluation Consultant, said the training was a capacity-building workshop to ensure continuity as the project progresses in completing future METT assessments. “We took the same group of persons from the previous METT Workshops, and now, we have a cohort of individuals who are trained to continue the management effectiveness assessments of protected areas,” she continued. “The management authorities are ensuring through climate-smart management plans and Rapid Ecological Assessments (REAs) that they are doing the work required for protected area management.”

An initial introduction and overview of the METT was presented during a conference in March with the PMU and project partners from the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), Department of Marine Resources (DMR), Forestry Unit, Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP), and Bahamas Protected Areas Fund (BPAF).

In the two months that followed, the Foundation was set to coordinate virtual and in-person working groups with communication and training logistics for implementation. The first METT workshop was held in June, where the process of assessing 27 MPAs began. Another 23 sites were evaluated at the second workshop held in July, and the remaining 20 sites were assessed during sessions held between August and September.

The five-month process included conservation experts, park wardens, and technical specialists from environmental organizations, who collaborated to gather and compile data on MPAs across The Bahamas.

The evaluations were conducted using the internationally standardized METT, which allows for a clearer picture of existing strengths and challenges and identifies areas needing improvement.

BNT played a critical role as the organization responsible for roughly 23 classified MPAs across the country. Representatives from the environmental non-profit organization provided existing data and information from previous assessments, which the wider group used as other partners collaborated to strengthen park management overall.

BNT Director of Parks, Ellsworth Weir, noted that some of the 70 MPAs have not yet been assigned to a management authority. He added that they have been exploring improvements and better implementation. “We looked at various areas, trying to assess what the threats are. Key threats can include poaching, climate change, even vessel groundings; there are any number of issues, and we try to look at each area by island or by clusters of islands to determine what the issues are that they might face. Then we brainstorm to find ways to mitigate these issues.” Weir said.

The third and final session of the METT process for 2026 was held during the week of October and titled ‘Train the Trainers’. Participants reviewed site assessment reports and discussed ways to strengthen management effectiveness. IDB Consultant for the project, Rich Wilson of Seatone Consulting, led the 3-day workshop, equipping participants to conduct future METT assessments. He explained that the goal was to move ‘from METT to action’ as this phase of the project comes to an end.

The next step in the project is developing a climate-smart management plan and a national mangrove management plan. Chisholm-Lightbourne, who organized all of the METT workshops over the past year, said that the future looks bright for the project as the BPMC moves into year four. “The advantage of having the METT completed is that we now know where the gaps are, we know what the financial concerns are, we know what some of the ecological concerns are, what the struggles are, and what is required.” She continued, “So now the action beyond this point is that we take those concerns and we put them into management action, with the right funding and resources for the parks to move forward and benefit The Bahamas in terms of resources, tourism, fisheries, and everything else.”