Background
The growing number and increasing complexity of ongoing marine protected areas (MPA) planning processes in the United States pose serious challenges to anyone attempting to follow and engage in these important activities. Each planning process has its own unique purpose, timeline of meetings, review documents, and other official events, and each is crucial to decisions made by the various MPA managing agencies. The National Marine Protected Areas Center is establishing web-based regional information centers across the nation in order to help stakeholders stay informed about ongoing federal and state MPA planning processes. These online regional information centers will provide "one-stop-shopping" for comprehensive information (such as goals and objectives of planned MPAs, key public events, and ongoing reviews of environmental and management plans) on ongoing federal, state, and tribal MPA planning processes.

Status
The MPA Regional Information Centers are a work in progress. Not all regions are complete. The MPA Center is currently gathering information on planning processes in the New England, South Atlantic, Pacific Coast, and Pacific Islands regions. The Mid Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Great Lakes regions will be populated in mid to late 2005. Please check back periodically for additional information on MPA planning processes in all regions.

Search by Region
To search for planning processes by region, roll the cursor over the map and choose a region by clicking. To view the details of a process, click on the process name.

Search by State
To search for planning process by state or territory, choose from the drop down box and click the submit button. The resulting table will return a list of processes associated with the selected state or territory. To view the details of a process, click on the process name.

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