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Grenada and Other Caribbean Nations Launch Unprecedented Challenge Initiative to Protect Marine and Coastal Resources

The Nature Conservancy joins Caribbean leaders to launch “Caribbean Challenge” at United Nations COP-9 conference

BONN, GERMANY — May 29th, 2008 — On Tuesday, The Nature Conservancy and Caribbean leaders announced the launch of the Caribbean Challenge, an effort by regional governments to build political support and generate long-term funding to protect at least 20 percent of participating countries’ marine and coastal habitats by 2020. Grenada will benefit from the Caribbean Challenge by providing long-term financial sustainability to marine protected areas.

“The official launch of the Caribbean Challenge is a great win for the Caribbean. This has been a long process in which Grenada has played an instrumental part,” said Dr. Linus Spencer Thomas, Biodiversity Coordinator for the Ministry of Finance. “The Caribbean Challenge through its provision of sustainable financing will facilitate the conservation of our biodiversity and our commitments to effectively protect our lands and waters.”

In Grenada, The Nature Conservancy, the fisheries department, local partners and community members completed a conservation action plan for the Sandy Island/Oyster Bed Marine Protected Area. The plan, when implemented, will conserve coral reef habitat, turtle nesting beaches, mangroves and oyster beds on Grenada’s island of Carriacou. The plan includes no-take zones and areas that provide for community use and support traditional livelihoods. Funding from the Caribbean Challenge will ensure that the management plan becomes a reality for the park.
  
“This is a great moment for Grenada to advance upon the bold vision it put forth at COP-8 and demonstrate its leadership in the conservation arena,” said Ruth Blyther, partnership specialist with The Nature Conservancy in Grenada. “The Nature Conservancy will continue to work with Grenada and other countries in the Eastern Caribbean by providing our support and technical assistance to protect their biodiversity for future generations.”
 
Over the next four years, the Conservancy will work alongside Caribbean governments in Grenada, The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines — with several other nations slated to endorse the Challenge in the coming weeks — to set aside nearly 7.4 million acres (3 million hectares) of marine and coastal habitat in protected areas, improve fisheries management and establish sustainable finance mechanisms. 

“The Caribbean Challenge will endow more than US$40 million in protected area trust funds to ensure that important marine and coastal habitats are protected in perpetuity,” said Stephanie Meeks, acting president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy.  “This is a small investment today for the priceless, long-term benefit of protecting the fish stocks and tourism-related livelihoods of the more than 10 million people living within the Challenge’s participating nations.”

At the invitation of Caribbean nations, The Nature Conservancy is coordinating with participating countries to execute the Caribbean Challenge, which represents the largest coordinated, multi-nation conservation campaign in the region. 

Countries that sign-on to the Challenge will gain access to millions of dollars in new funding to meet their conservation goals, leading to more rangers, patrol boats, scientific expertise and education programs that will help to ensure effective protection of marine and coastal resources. So far The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have endorsed the Challenge, while Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and St. Lucia are considering the initiative and are reported as likely to sign on.    

The Conservancy has pledged US$20 million to launch and support the Caribbean Challenge, with $8.6 million of this pledge directed toward capitalizing protected area trust funds and leveraging additional dollars.  The German government is considering a matching grant of $8.6 million for the trust funds.  In addition, these Caribbean countries are working with the Global Environment Facility and its implementing agencies to access additional support for conservation and sustainable livelihoods projects that will advance the goals of the initiative.

The Caribbean Challenge is the third large-scale regional initiative to be launched in the past three years, adding to a global trend of island leaders standing up and pledging to protect vast percentages of their marine and coastal resources.  The Challenge was inspired by the “Micronesia Challenge,” to protect 30 percent of marine resources and 20 percent of terrestrial resources in the Northern Pacific by 2020, and the “Coral Triangle Initiative,” to safeguard Bali’s rich marine resources. 

Together, these initiatives, which span regions containing 83 percent of the world’s coral biodiversity and 82 percent of the world’s mangrove species, have the potential to protect a significant portion of the world’s marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of over 130 million people living within these areas.

The Caribbean Challenge was launched on Tuesday at an event held by the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA), a group of island nations and nations with islands — small and large, developing and developed — to mobilize leadership, increase resources and share skills, knowledge, technologies, and innovations in a cost-effective and sustainable way that will catalyze action for conservation and sustainable livelihoods on islands.  In addition to providing funding for the Caribbean Challenge, the Conservancy also committed $500,000 to support GLISPA, recognizing the important role that the partnership plays in supporting and catalyzing island commitments to nature conservation and sustainable livelihoods.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.