Development of a regional environmental platform for the Caribbean Sea and Wider Caribbean Region

The Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) is one of the Regional Seas Programmes that focuses on the importance and value of the Wider Caribbean Region’s fragile and vulnerable coastal and marine ecosystems, including endemic plants and animals. The Cartagena Convention promotes the protection and development of the marine environment of the region and provides the legal framework for the CEP.
The general objective of this project is the development of a regional environmental monitoring platform that would support the periodic development of the Secretariat’s “State of” reports:
- on Marine Pollution in support of its Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution (LBS) Protocol.
- on Marine Biodiversity in support of its Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) Protocol.
The specific objectives of the platform are:
(1) To facilitate compilation of information from national monitoring and assessment programs that will support the preparation of periodic State of Marine Biodiversity and Marine Pollution reports for the Caribbean Sea and the Wider Caribbean Region.
(2) To contribute to increased awareness about the State of Marine Environment of the Caribbean Sea including strengthening science-policy linkages.
(3) To support monitoring of the implementation of Regional Strategies on Marine Biodiversity and Marine Pollution by the Cartagena Convention Secretariat.
(4) To support regional reporting on relevant Regional and Global Commitments and MEAs on Biodiversity and Pollution.
The platform, integrated with the World Environment Situation Room, aims to include on-line information and knowledge products.
MapX is used for geospatial data management and dissemination.
One of the outputs of the project is to train technical personnel of the Cartagena Convention Secretariat/CEP and their Regional Activity Centers (RACs) on the use of the platform.