None The Nature Conservancy in Jamaica Press Releases Search All Press Releases Anna Berardi (407) 682-3664, ext. 128, aberardi@tnc.org Victoria Khalidi, (520) 622-3861, ext. 3484, vkhalidi@tnc.org

Jamaica 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 Biological Diversity conference

BONN, GERMANY — May 29, 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. Jamaica will benefit from the Caribbean Challenge by gaining access to resources towards creating long-term financial sustainability of marine and coastal protected areas and more effective management of the entire national protected areas system.

“For Jamaica, as an island particularly vulnerable to climate change and needing to develop in a sustainable way, it is clear that protection of our resources now is a wise investment for avoiding long term and possibly irreversible damage to those resources in the future,” said Senator Aundre Franklin at Conference side event – hosted by the Global Islands Partnership on May 27, 2008. “We look forward to countries in the Caribbean working together to implement the Protected Areas Programme of Work in order to share lessons, skills and resources where possible as in the Caribbean Challenge”, he continued.

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.  The Challenge is an unprecedented commitment by Caribbean governments to build political support and financial sustainability for protected areas in the Caribbean, through the implementation of national and sub-regional projects and programmes towards these aims.

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 Jamaica, The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, 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.    

“It is a great opportunity for Jamaica to have embarked on the Caribbean Challenge on the eve of its launch,” said Terry Williams, Southeast Caribbean program director for The Nature Conservancy, an organization that does conservation work in Jamaica. “This builds upon the strong work the Conservancy has been doing in Jamaica in cooperation with the government, conservation partners and communities.”

In one of the programmes of the Jamaica office of the Nature Conservancy , TNC has been working with the government through the Fisheries Division, the Jamaica Defence Force, National Environment Planning Agency and with fishers on the Pedro Bank. This fishing outpost is just one site facing the hazards of unsustainable fishing. With the Caribbean Challenge, funds can be mobilized to help create protected areas that will help fish stocks regenerate while providing funds to help fishers develop and use sustainable fishing techniques and identify alternative methods of earning income.

Importantly, the other main plank of Jamaica’s contribution to the Caribbean Challenge is the implementation of the Protected Areas System Master Plan (PASMP), due to be completed in December 2008. The PASMP will facilitate the addition of recommended sites, such as Pedro Bank, and also facilitate better organization and more effective management of the protected areas system.
 
Over the next four years, the Conservancy will work alongside Caribbean governments in Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Grenada 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.”

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. Jamaica will be using Global Environment Facility grant funds, among other sources for its Challenge project.

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 and coastal 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. GLISPA is partnering with the Convention on Biological Diversity to implement aspects of its programmes of work, but especially “islands” and “protected areas”.

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.