This pilot study examines the quality of MPA management and level of compliance by local resource-users that are highly dependent on the marine environment in Cuba. By reviewing existing management practices and community engagement in several different areas, my goal was to identify the most decisive characteristics that influenced local communities’ support of an MPA, and how these characteristics contributed to the effective management of a marine environment. In other words, what is necessary for MPAs to appeal to the resource-users that are impacted by the regulations, like fishermen and local residents that depend on the sea for food and livelihoods? And how can that community support increase the effectiveness of an MPA? For this pilot study I examined the realities of MPA management in Cuba by reviewing relevant literature and scientific publications, attending a panel on Cuba’s most successful MPA, conducting over 20 informal interviews, and visiting several coastal communities in Cuba. My objective was to identify key themes from Cuba’s MPA management practices that could be applicable to management of any MPA that relies on an element of community support or compliance to achieve its conservation objectives.

In the hot dry spring of monsoon-driven environments, keeping an accurate calendar to regulate the annual planting of crops is of critical importance. Before the Spanish conquest, the Basin of Mexico had a highly productive farming system able to feed its very large population. However, how they managed to keep their farming dates in synchrony with the solar year is not known. In this paper, we show that the observation of sunrise against the Basin's eastern horizon could have provided an accurate solar calendar and that some important sunrise landmarks coincide well with the themes of seasonal festivities described in early codices. We also show that a long stone causeway in the summit of Mount Tlaloc aligns perfectly with the rising sun on February 23 to 24, in coincidence with the Basin's new year in the Mexica calendar. Third, we demonstrate that, when viewed from the sacred Mount Tepeyac in the bottom of the Basin, sunrise aligns with Mount Tlaloc also on February 24. The importance of Mount Tlaloc as a calendric landmark seems to be corroborated by illustrations and texts in ancient Mexica codices. Our findings demonstrate that by using carefully developed alignments with the rugged eastern horizon, the inhabitants of the Basin of Mexico were able to adjust their calendar to keep in synchrony with the solar year and successfully plan their corn harvests.