Artikel 4

1. Each Party shall, when necessary, establish protected areas in areas over which it exercises sovereignty, or sovereign rights or jurisdiction, with a view to sustaining the natural resources of the Wider Caribbean Region, and encouraging ecologically sound and appropriate use, understanding and enjoyment of these areas, in accordance with the objectives and characteristics of each of them.
2. Such areas shall be established in order to conserve, maintain and restore, in particular:
a) representative types of coastal and marine ecosystems of adequate size to ensure their long-term viability and to maintain biological and genetic diversity;
b) habitats and their associated ecosystems critical to the survival and recovery of endangered, threatened or endemic species of flora or fauna;
c) the productivity of ecosystems and natural resources that provide economic or social benefits and upon which the welfare of local inhabitants is dependent; and
d) areas of special biological, ecological, educational, scientific, historic, cultural, recreational, archaeological, aesthetic, or economic value, including in particular, areas whose ecological and biological processes are essential to the functioning of the Wider Caribbean ecosystems.