Indicators for Assessing Marine Protected Areas - the Case of the Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area in Vietnam

Although marine protected areas have existed in Vietnam for 10 years and there are some separate assessments of biological or social aspects, few comprehensive evaluations of the management effectiveness have been carried out. This paper presents some easily accessible ecological, economic and social indicators for marine protected areas and discusses them for the case of the Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area (NTB-MPA) as an example, by putting together data from a number of different sources. The outcome is that the creation of the NTB-MPA provides some social benefits for stakeholders by improving livelihoods for MPA residents, but could not achieve the conservation objectives targeted for 2005.