Bonaire National Marine Park - LAC - RESEARCH AND MONITORING

As you might expect, the Bonaire National Marine Park (BNMP) is involved in a great deal of research.

Since the year 1962, when the Stichting Nationale Parken Nederlandse Antillean (STINAPA N.A.) was founded, several research projects were carried out in Lac under its auspices.
Research and monitoring is an integral part of environmental management. We need reliable data about the areas we protect for conservation purposes, as well as to monitor the effects our management activities have upon specific natural areas.

For researchers, as well as tourists, Lac is a very interesting and challenging area. The contrast between the high dynamics, caused by the oceanic influences and seasonal differences, and the fragile character of the seagrass, coral and mangrove zones make Lac one of the most difficult ecosystems to manage in the Dutch Antilles.

The first significant research program in Lac was carried out by Wagenaar, Hummelinck and Roos, three years after the founding of STINAPA N.A. During a former research program in the Piscadera Bay on Curaçao, a similar lagoon to Lac, it emerged that changes in flora and fauna were hard to understand and estimate when the environmental circumstances of the past were unknown.

The planned building of the Hotel Sorobon, as well as the large-scale sand extraction occurring in the Lac vicinity, was the impetus for beginning scientific research in the area. It was expected that these major short-term changes in and around the lagoon would result, both directly and indirectly, in changes in the Lac habitat.

The research project ‘Base-Line ecological study van het Lac Bonaire’ was carried out in 1992 and 1993 by a Dutch consultancy, Waardenburg B.V. The original reason to start this project was the building of a new complex for ‘Marcultura’, the centre for aquaculture on Bonaire. Since ‘Marcultura’ planned an expansion, a new location, bordered by Lac, was granted. The water drain from ‘Marcultura’ was originally planned to flow into Lac. The need to understand the effects of such an action upon the fragile ecosystem of Lac was clear.
Eventually the water drain was moved and does not currently flow into Lac.

The results of international archaeological and ecological research projects that took place in Lac in the 1970s and 1990s made it clear that it was necessary to conduct deeper and more scientific investigations to protect and conserve Lac in the future in a better and a more efficient way. (‘Research and Monitoring Results for the Size Class Distribution and Abundance of the Queen Conch, Strombus Gigas’ and ‘Seagrass Characterization in Lac Bay Bonaire’, Lott, 2000)
These Lac environmental assessment projects were carried out on behalf of the Bonaire National Marine Park (STINAPA-Bonaire), and the people of Bonaire, to assist with managing and sustaining Lac for the future enjoyment of Bonaire (Lott, 2001).

In the late 1990s the Marine Park initiated a project, which it submitted to the WWF NL, to develop and implement a management plan for Lac. In 2003 the Lac Management Plan was completed. It was developed in close cooperation with the local community, the user community and the Island Government. (Renken, 2003).

In 2005 STINAPA-Bonaire started a new long-term monitoring program to get a reliable impression of the hydrology of Lac and arrive at suitable and accurate solutions for the most pressing problems in Lac: the mangrove die back in the upper Lac area and the sand accumulation at Awa Blanku. The preparations and analysis of past data for this research project have been completed (Kats, 2005-2006). The next two years will be reserved for the actual monitoring activities. (Progressive Environmental Solutions, 2006-2007)

All researchers need a permit to do any research in the Bonaire National Marine Park.