Welcome to the CCIF MPA Financial Management Tool! The Conservation and Community Investment Forum (CCIF) has spent a number of years working with leading MPA practitioners, scientists, policy makers, funders and investors to design comprehensive, bottom-up budgeting and cost forecasting models for individual MPAs, and the financing strategies to support them. The result has been the development of a comprehensive Excel-based MPA Cost Model and a companion Instruction Manual.

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CCIF has recently worked with The David & Lucille Packard Foundation and Duke University MEBM Tool Innovation Fund applying the same approach, rigor and functional design toward the development of this MPA Financial Management web-based Tool. This Web-based MPA Financial Management Tool has been designed with the same functionality and outputs as the Excel version.

To start exploring and using the Web Tool please first read the Introduction Summary provided below. If you are familiar with the Tool and have already registered please enter your login information. If you are not registered, do so. Once you have registered and logged in you will be able to review a Demonstration model or begin creating your own model.

Model Use and Feedback - A Work in Progress

Both the Web-based and Excel-based Models, and the companion PDF Instruction Manual, are freely available for use by interested MPA practitioners and other users. CCIF intends for all future versions of this MPA Financial Management Tool to remain freely available. However, since their development is still a work in progress, CCIF asks that users provide feedback on their experience or any specific issues that they encounter while using these Models. We are especially interested to know if you encounter errors or problems with the design or functionality, or if you have any suggestions on how to improve the Models for future versions. As a user, your feedback will help determine how the MPA Financial Management Tool models evolve. All comments should be sent to info@cciforum.org.

CCIF will continue to work with the conservation funding community to find ways to improve the models' functionality and to explore opportunities to develop versions that are adaptable for networks of MPAs, terrestrial PAs, and to provide versions of both models in multiple languages beside these English versions.

Thank you for your interest in the CCIF MPA Financial Management Tool model(s)!

Introduction to the CCIF MPA Financial Management Tool

There exists a consensus in the conservation community on the value and importance of marine protected areas (MPAs) as an important tool to protect and conserve our oceans and their resources. This has been well documented and is supported through efforts by various international groups and treaties, including the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and recognition in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The IUCN makes clear that "the world's protected areas are the greatest legacy we can leave to future generations - to ensure that our descendants have access to nature and all the material and spiritual wealth that it represents." The IUCN further defines a protected area as: "an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means."

Designing marine protected areas requires an understanding of three important parameters:

1. the science required for proper zoning, delineation, and resources management,
2. the necessary cultural and political support required to effectively implement the MPA, and
3. the operational and financial requirements essential to realize the required level of actual protection and management.

The former parameters are increasingly well understood. The latter generally remains difficult to assess and pursue in an optimal way. This difficulty stems from the fact that operating an MPA resembles running a complex, logistically intensive business - with objectives that revolve around, and that seeks to deliver on, three equally significant and interrelated outcomes:

• Conserving critically important biodiversity (species, habitats, etc),
• Protecting ecosystems and seascapes and the service they afford to local, national, and international communities, and
• Assisting communities in meeting their needs in an effective, efficient, democratic and sustainable manner, including, but not limited to: food security, natural resources utilization, and cultural, recreational and spiritual needs.

In order to ensure that these objectives are met, it is important to design complete and factual operational management plans, and parallel financial plans, which effectively define and address the complexity inherent in running a fully functional and sustainable MPA. The necessary detailed and systematic financial forecasting for MPAs requires a rigorous approach to understanding all aspects of MPA management in detail, and becomes an excellent guiding "operational framework" for MPA planning and management.

An Operational Framework for MPAs

The Conservation and Community Investment Forum (CCIF) has developed a comprehensive Excel-based MPA Cost Model and a companion Instruction Manual, and recently applied the same approach, rigor and functional design toward the development of this MPA Financial Management web-based Tool. The Models have evolved over the years with field work in Indonesia, Cambodia, Central America, and the Philippines, and with input from NGOs and other MPA practitioners. They provide a framework that captures the costs of providing ongoing conservation programs as well as the current and potential revenue and funding sources to cover these costs. The Model first captures and analyzes the current status of a given MPA, mapping the objectives of the MPA, and focusing the users' efforts on identifying the essential functions (science, community, etc) and related activities necessary to address these unique characteristics and objectives. Ultimately the Model provides clear analysis and guidance for both practitioners and funders to assist in the development and implementation of successful MPAs over the long run.

In developing the Models, CCIF applied a general framework of MPA functions and budget categories as representative of the operational components of a typical MPA (note the functions are fully adjustable based on agreement of stakeholders). The Models allow users to design and project MPA management plan costs and financing needs in an integrated way, defining costs at two levels: functional components and budget categories. During the input of cost data, users are able to think about how to optimally design and maintain the MPA and its functions so that objectives can be realized over time. In addition to capturing cost data, the Model documents the secured and potential cash sources utilized to cover the MPA costs. The exercise of thinking through the current and potential cash sources assists in the long-term planning of the MPA, and helps practitioners understand how they might bridge the gap between need (as defined by the cost inputs) and current available financial resources.

The Models also allow for the construction of up to four different scenarios. This is important, as Scenarios define the level of conservation effort necessary to realize MPA objectives at varying degrees. For example, given the profiles and agreement on objectives, functional and budget components, conservation effort needed to achieve the MPA objectives at varying levels of intensity (usually including "minimal" and "optimal") are determined.

The Models are useful not only for forecasting the financial requirements and sources for specific MPAs, but also in guiding managers and practitioners on finer points of management and operational plan design and modifications to increase their effectiveness and efficiencies. MPAs only function as conservation tools if they are operated ably and financed in perpetuity. This model should guide management and use of limited financial resources - accelerating the success and performance of MPAs.