BBP in Brief, Issue 4, April 2005

What is BBP?

The Bahamas Biocomplexity Project (BBP) is a five-year initiative funded primarily by the National Science Foundation to investigate the complex environmental and social factors that affect the design, management, and effectiveness of networks of marine protected areas (MPAs). Researchers involved in the project include oceanographers, biologists, and social scientists from nine institutions working in collaboration with various governmental and non-governmental groups in The Bahamas.

Ultimately, the primary goal of the project is to integrate studies of natural and human processes, leading to a more sophisticated understanding of how individual MPAs work, and how they could work as part of a network throughout The Bahamas and in other coral reef ecosystems. Other important goals include the integration of this research with education and decision-making.