2. Provide help desk
services for staff, coordinating troubleshooting of computers and
printers and of scanners, software applications and problems with remote
access; Provide technical support for database systems – Focal Point
database, Travel Forecast, Project Matrix, CDS-ISIS (electronic library
system); Provide e-mail support, create new accounts, liaise with
service provider, maintenance of email software and resetting of
passwords; Provide information technology support to Caribbean
Environment Programme (CEP) Intergovernmental and Technical meetings;
focal point for headquarters IT projects as installation of Lotus
Notes.
3. Ensure continuity and modernity of Caribbean Regional
Coordination Unit (CAR-RCU) Local Area Network and Database Systems:
Revise and update both End-User and Internal IT Focal Point Instruction
Manuals; Update and maintain an inventory of the computer hardware,
software and peripheral devices; Provide recommendations to supervisor
for hardware, software and other upgrades or new acquisitions for
CAR/RCU and confirm proper delivery of items received.
4. Website
maintenance and development: Assist in maintenance of UNEP/CAR-RCU
website, coordinate the updating of content and design and monitor for
potential problems; Provide support to CEP Partners and the Regional
Activity Centres (RAC)hosting pages on the CEP website server; Assist in
the development and maintenance of Clearinghouse Mechanisms; Liaise
with service provider(s) in charge of revamped web design, and reporting
to CAR-RCU CETA on status.
5. Perform any other assigned.
Last Friday, the attraction was presented with its Earthcheck Platinum plaque for maintaining and improving its green standards over the last 10 years.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/environment/The-Green-in-Green-Grotto_14137563#ixzz2S3ZmM2vm
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According to the minister, who was speaking at the 2013 Hope Zoo Earth Day & Fun Day in Kingston yesterday, Jamaica is at a crossroads where our children need to be fully educated on the benefits, advantages and disadvantages of preserving our environment.
"I want to make sure that we always have clean air, clean water and clean land, but we all have to work together to make that happen. Protecting our environment is about protecting where we live and being careful about how we live," Minister Pickersgill said during a rap and story session with over 300 students, parents and educators.
"To reduce the amount of garbage we make, we need to reduce, reuse and recycle. Reducing means cutting down the amount of garbage that we make; reusing means using something again before putting it in the garbage and recycling means taking things that we have finished using and make them into brand new things," he further stated.
Pickersgill also shared useful tips and explained to students that at least 20 years from now they would be the beneficiaries of the positive environmental acts they do today.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/environment/-Reduce--reuse--recycle-_14138172#ixzz2RxpyutiU
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The Belgian company is working with plastic manufacturer Logoplaste to combine plastic trawled from the sea with a plastic made from sugar cane ('Plant-astic') and recycled plastic, in what it is calling a world-first for packaging. Products made from the packaging will go on sale next year.
But the company was unable to give details of how much plastic would be retrieved or what percentage of "sea plastic" would be used in the packaging.
Ecover chief executive, Philip Malmberg, said: "We won't have a definitive figure on the amount we will retrieve we are just hoping to get as much as is possible and give fishermen an incentive to join the initiative and help clean the seas. We want to get the sea waste in as much of our packaging as possible – it will always depend on the amount and quality of the plastic they have managed to fish."
Read more of this article here:
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How TripAdvisor GreenLeaders Works
The TripAdvisor GreenLeaders program considers a property's holistic approach to green practices and ranks them based on four levels of participation - Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum - which will be shown prominently on the property's listing on the TripAdvisor site. The more green practices a hotel has in place, the higher its TripAdvisor GreenLeaders level.
A comprehensive list of eco-friendly practices are evaluated, from linen and towel re-use, recycling and composting through to solar panels, electric car charging stations and green roofing. Accommodations that do not meet the requirements for TripAdvisor GreenLeaders, but do have the seven minimum green practices in place, will be awarded TripAdvisor GreenPartner status.
Travelers will be able to tailor their search on TripAdvisor for hotels participating in the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders program, and view a detailed list of environmentally-friendly practices that they can expect at each location. TripAdvisor's community of travelers will also be invited to comment on a hotel's green credentials following a stay at a participating property, and in the future their feedback will be displayed on the site.
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Director of Communications, said, " The around $1 trillion a year global tourism industry can be a key catalyst in the transformation towards a green economy in developed and developing countries alike".
"Studies conducted by UNEP show that more than a third of travelers favour environmentally-friendly tourism. At the same time, global spending on sustainable tourism is estimated to increase at a higher rate than the industry average growth. By giving travelers better information on the availability and quality of eco-friendly accommodation the Greenleaders programme is meeting a growing demand for greener tourism and doing its bit towards a more sustainable century," he added.
]]>" on the IUCN's Red List, are finally getting a break (at least, let's hope this helps). After a 15-year fight between developers and conservationists, Puerto Rico's government has finally decided to side with the greens and create a protected zone on the island's coast to protect leatherbacks. Named the Northeast Ecological Corridor, the protected area is about 14 square kilometers (5.4 sq miles).
Read more of this article here:
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In what is being described by some as a “deep sea mining bonanza”, the British arm of the US defence firm hopes to exploit rare earth minerals from the seabeds between Mexico and Hawaii. The announcement comes as the world’s first DSM project in PNG is mired in legal and financial strife and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is finalising a three-volume series detailing the potential social and environmental impacts of this new mining frontier.
Lockheed Martin’s exploration of a 58,000 square kilometre area of seabed, under the auspices of its wholly owned subsidiary, UK Seabed Resources, will adapt aerospace and underwater technologies to extract the resources from approximately four kilometres beneath the ocean’s surface. In a true story more plausible as a Tom Clancy novel, the area was identified as “mineral rich” during the depths of the Cold War, when Lockheed Martin used a ship owned by reclusive American tycoon Howard Hughes to search for a sunken, nuclear missile-laden, Soviet submarine. The lost sub search was carried out under the guise that Lockheed Martin was collecting polymetallic nodules — basically, rocks comprised of manganese and iron — from the ocean floor.
]]>The environmental group Cambutal Tortu-Agro campaigns for the conservation of about five species of the turtles.
In some areas of Panama turtle eggs are raided annually and sold.
According to the group's report, hatchling green turtle species and lora were born in two nurserieson artificial beaches located on the Cuchilla and Cambutal beaches in the Tonosídistrict, where the reproduction of both species is protected.
The project for the conservation of marine turtles has received $25,000 in UN funds. It is organized by Cambutal Tortu-Agro, the Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP) and the National Environmental Authority (ANAM)Read more of this article here:
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Published April 12, 2013
Part of our weekly "In Focus" series—stepping back, looking closer.
The dead sea otters arrived at Melissa Miller's Santa Cruz, California, lab with bright-yellow eyes and gums, their livers destroyed.
One by one, Miller, a marine-wildlife veterinarian, eliminated the potential causes of death until "the last thing I was left with seemed so implausible that I thought I was going crazy."
The otters had been poisoned by a "nasty toxin" called microcystin, which is produced by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. Such toxins can appear when human sewage and fertilizers run into lakes and rivers, adding nutrients that spur the growth of algae "superblooms," Miller said.
But sea otters stick to the ocean, never entering the polluted lakes and rivers where these blooms occur.
"I said, OK, we have to figure out how the otters are getting into this," said Miller, of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the University of California, Davis.
Miller's sleuthing led her to California's Pinto Lake (map), a water body about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from the ocean and so prone to superblooms that Miller said "it'll blow your mind—it looks like fluorescent green paint."
Sure enough, she found that Pinto Lake eventually drains into the Pacific Ocean—close to where the dead otters were found in 2007.
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Biosphere reserves, as described by UNESCO, are terrestrial and coastal areas that promote sustainable development and act as learning sites where new and optimal practices to manage nature and human activities are tested and demonstrated. They consist of protected zones which are restricted to human interference; a buffer zone where limited human activity is permitted, and a transition zone where greater activity is allowed. They have three main aims: conservation, economic development, and research and education.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/environment/Regional-countries-agree-to-biosphere-reserves_14016553#ixzz2RPOg37BY
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