Gef-iw5 etps mangroves

F.Barriers to Addressing the Environmental Problems and Root Causes

Institutional, legal, financial, cultural, and market barriers to addressing environmental problems posed for mangrove conservation were identified and discussed with local experts during the PPG planning meetings in each ETPS country. Experts were asked whether the barriers identified were of little relevance (low), quite relevant (medium) or highly relevant (high) in the context of their country (not between countries). These results are summarized below:

	Relevance as a barrier?
Type of barrier	Costa Rica	Panama	Colombia	Ecuador
Capacity building: Poor stakeholder awareness of root problems	Medium	Low	Medium	Low
Institutional technical capacity	Low	Medium	High	Medium
Lack of underlying scientific data	Low	Low	Medium	Medium
Management and policy: Conflicting legislation, limitations to enforcement and judicial process.	Medium	High	High	Medium
Low Inter-institutional coordination and inconsistencies between agencies and development agendas	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium
Policy gaps and clarification of competencies	Medium	Medium	Low	Low
Limited state funding available and limited endorsement.	Low	Medium	Medium	Low
Ridge-to-reef: Well established industries and dependency on domestic infrastructure (e.g. Hydroelectric dams for energy security tradeoff with food security, watershed integrity, agriculture expansion etc.)	Medium	High	Low	High
Weak linkages in spatial ridge-to-reef planning between political, management jurisdictions and ecological ridge-to-reef processes.	Medium	Medium	High	High
Complex arrangements for distinct local autonomous communities complicate the application of national strategies.	Low	Low	High	Low-Medium
Local engagement: Limited access and or adequate engagement with local communities	Low	Low	High	Medium
A lack of internal community organization and leadership.	Low	Low	Low	Medium