El Salvador recently completed demarcation of its first Marine Protected Area, a plot known as Los Cobanos totaling 21,312 hectares of ocean, mangrove forests, and sandy and rocky beaches.

Located two miles south of Acajutla international port in Punta Remedios, Department of Sonsonate, southwestern El Salvador, the area includes 20,732 hectares of the Pacific Ocean that feature rocky reefs and the only hard coral formations that occur in the Eastern Pacific between Mexico and the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border. The area also includes 580 hectares of mangrove forests that are among the national jewels of biodiversity.

The demarcation was completed June 10 with the placement of a fourth 17-foot tall, yellow polyethylene buoy, which was anchored with a 2,000-kilogram steel-carbon chain to a 5,200-kilogram dead weight located 178 feet below on the ocean floor. The four buoys are all-yellow with yellow lights and "X" marks on the top, the type used internationally to sign special interest areas. Their placement completed the measuring and marking performed under DAI's Improved Management and Conservation of Critical Watersheds (IMCW) project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

DAI assisted the technical staff of the Salvadoran Ministry of Environment to prepare the protection decree, which was signed by the Minister in December 2007. Through 2008, the project team focused on delineating and demarking of the land portion of the area, and navigating the logistics -- international regulations, technical specifications, oceanographic characteristics, and official permits -- for the placement of oceanic buoys to demarcate the corners of the marine surface.

Placement of the buoys was supported by the Government of El Salvador through Acajutla's port authorities, which provided supervision, port storage, and the use of cranes, tug boats, and equipment; and Centro Nacional de Registros (the national registry centre), which verified placement coordinates.

A local, representative team of stakeholders is developing a management plan for Los Cobanos, which will rule fisheries, land use, tourism, and other activities in a sustainable way in order to guarantee the preservation of the protected area.

IMCW seeks to reverse economic trends in rural western El Salvador -- trends that threaten the sustainability of critical ecosystems, degrade water supplies and quality, and bind farmers to environmentally destructive subsistence farming. To do so, the project develops the management of areas of high biodiversity importance while promoting responsible, sustainable economic growth. The DAI team's approach empowers local communities and stakeholders using integrated spatial planning to develop agreements on land use and land zoning for protected areas.

Following this approach, DAI helps local stakeholders improve their livelihoods and realize tangible economic benefits linked to sustainable improvements in watershed management and the conservation of biological resources. This approach directly links the sustainable protection of parks and protected areas -- and the management of ecological corridors -- to improved income- and employment-generating opportunities in high-value products such as specialty coffee, fruits and vegetables, and ecotourism.