Elaboración de un Plan de Gestión Ambiental para el Parque Nacional Morrocoy, Venezuela

Given the practical difficulties of preventing environmental impacts on coastal ecosystems, a method that focuses on evaluating efforts and managing the causes was proposed. The causes of environmental aspects (liquid effluents, solid waste, and atmospheric emissions) can be predicted, measured and evaluated with a preventive approach. A procedure that identifies environmental aspects and contrasts them with a number of independent criteria (legal limits, environmental fragility, and risks) was developed. The method was applied in coastal ecosystems of Morrocoy National Park, with an emphasis on the reef, to assess the impacts (reef degradation) and causes (environmental aspects), proposing an Environmental Management Plan that  mitigates the continuous impacts on the reef. Therefore, it is concluded that the assessment of environmental aspects in coastal areas is an effective way to prevent reef degradation regardless of global environmental effects that local actors cannot control.