A large number of coastal countries have already developed or are in the process of developing national coastal management Programs. Even in those that do not have a formal Program, coastal management and coastal ecosystem governance activities are underway as communities and government recognize the value of coastal resources in providing food, livelihoods, and recreation. They also recognize the magnitude and impacts of the growing degradation--and in some cases even permanent loss--of those resources. Universally, this degradation is the result of many forces at play such as climate change, and destructive and uninformed human behavior driven by basic needs for food and income. MPAs are one effective tool/approach for helping protect and maintain the long-term physical and economic health of the marine resources upon which so many local communities in developing countries depend.

MPAs also provide a mechanism for contracting parties to meet their commitments under international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In fact, The Jakarta Mandate--the coastal and marine biodiversity program of action of the CBD--highlights MPAs as one of five thematic areas necessary for implementation of the CBD.  In the Western Indian Ocean they are critical for meeting the obligations of signatory states to the Nairobi Convention.

Too often, however, management of these MPAs is less than effective. Many meetings, reports and assessments have issued a call to rectify this and have recommended that regional and national training courses for MPA staff become a high priority. In response, there have been important capacity development initiatives for MPA managers undertaken globally. This includes in the Western Indian Ocean region, where WIOMSA and its partners have conducted regional training courses in MPA management. South Africa has also developed a complementary course. These two courses are now strongly aligned with each other and with the WIO- COMPAS Level 2 competences. Three important tools for MPA managers have also been produced--Training Manual for MPA Managers; Toolkit for Managing Marine Protected Areas in the Western Indian Ocean; and Assessing Management Effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas: A Workbook for the Western Indian Ocean.

Collectively these and other capacity-building efforts and publications have helped to highlight the competences and practices that are essential to effective management of MPAs. The next step in helping MPA management evolve from a practice to a profession was to: 1) categorize these core competences and establish standards for each against which to assess the performance and experience of professionals working in MPAs; and 2) establish a set of ethics by which those working in the profession agree to abide. The WIO-COMPAS Program represents this "next" step and offers the first-of-its-kind certification of MPA professionals.