The SPAW Protocol, which was brought into force in 2000, seeks to preserve, protect and manage sustainably, areas identified as unique and having special value, and threatened or endangered species of flora and fauna.

The Grupo Punta Cana (GPC) — which owns and operates the Punta Cana Airport, three hotels and various residential properties in the Dominican Republic — demonstrates this well.

The group engages in and encourages ecological and sustainable development practices in the provision of all services; from electricity to water, water treatment, and waste management.

And by considering the local community one of its key stakeholders interacts with them carefully. Its sub-companies must conform to local environmental licences and permits — high standards having been introduced in the groups early days, even before the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Environment was established.

As such, it led by example and was well prepared to conform to the legal and regulatory framework developed subsequently by the national authorities. It was a founding member of the Partnership for Ecologically- Sustainable Coastal Areas (PESCA), which promotes sustainable fishing and tourism in particular.

GPC’s enlightened approach has allowed it to have a good working relationship with the government and the local community and to be authentic in its representation to the public as practising sustainable development.

“The company sees sustainable use and development as a competitive edge. It aims to influence the mind-set of other businesses in the area. Tourism is an image business,” said Jake Kheel, the group’s environmental director.

They see themselves as investors with a long-term commitment, which is good for the community, the environment and the company. It is no accident that all of the area resorts have water treatment plants, that no buildings are more than three storeys high, that water reuse is being introduced in the area for irrigation, that two tonnes of garbage is recycled each day, and that biomass is used to fuel a steam laundry.

“Long-term commitment works,” said Kheel.

This example was seen as a model at the first Conference of the Parties to the Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land-Based Activities (LBS Protocol), held in late October 2012 in the Dominican Republic. As part of the meeting activities, a panel of experts from different sectors reflected on their individual experiences with marine and coastal pollution.

It allowed all participants to appreciate various perspectives — private, industrial, Government, NGO, and donors at national as well as regional levels — as they identified the barriers to achieving greater progress in managing land-based sources of marine pollution.

At its biannual review meeting held in the Dominican Republic in October, the UNCEP reviewed its existing programmes, including its premier LifeWeb project which focuses on, among other things, long-term planning for marine mammals, such as whales.

The design of a management plan for the Marine Mammal Sanctuary of the Dominican Republic, worth an estimated US$9 million to that country up to 2008, is among the activities of the LifeWeb project to protect humpback whales and their habitats.

The sanctuary, first designated in 1986, was extended to include Navidad Bank and part of Samana Bay on the Dominica Republic's north coast to protect hump back whale mating, calving and nursery grounds in 1996.

The now 19,430 square miles sanctuary - which has enjoyed a "sister sanctuary" agreement with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary found off the coast of Massachusetts since 2007 - accommodates the densest concentration of humpback whales in the north Atlantic.

Work on the management plan is being undertaken by the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP's) Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) since 2011, courtesy of an agreement with the Fundacion Dominicana de Estudios Marinos (FUNDEMAR) and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

The present population of the hump back whale worldwide is estimated to be no more than 35,000, about a third of the original population. Yet this is one of the marine mammals about which more is known.

Information on the health, numbers, distribution, and movements of individual species is critical if their continued survival is to be successfully managed. Information, which is presented in a way that helps to enhance understanding of their behaviour and migration patterns, is particularly valuable.

It is this which justifies the approach of the more than two-year-old LifeWeb project, launched by UNEP CEP in June 2010 with funding from the Spanish Government. It aims to assist countries to develop and apply cross-sectoral ecosystem approaches to the management of human threats to marine mammals.

The project is also designed to provide an overview of essential habitats and regional-scale movements for marine mammals in need of improved management in the south-east and north-east Pacific and the wider Caribbean and adjacent regions through data integration and GIS-mapping of existing data, including socio-economic information on fisheries, shipping and tourism.

Further, it is introducing integrated planning approaches, including the provision of technical guidance, regional training and learning exchanges on the application of marine spatial planning to trans-boundary governance and management of marine mammals, including the transfer of skills, tools and equitable sharing of marine resource benefits.

The overall goal of the project is to assist implementation of the Convention for Biological Diversity's Programme of Work on Protected Areas through technical support in establishment of comprehensive, effectively managed, and ecologically representative regional systems of marine protected areas by 2012 in the countries of the Latin America and Caribbean and neighbouring regions.

Project partners include the North East Pacific Action Plan, the Caribbean Marine Protected Areas Management Network and Forum, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, French Marine Protected Areas Agency, Dutch Caribbean, GRID-Arendal, Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), national agencies and others. All contribute to produce marine spatial tools which are invaluable for planning.

Support for marine mammal action plans through sub- and inter-regional science-policy dialogues and consultations with stakeholders are also essential aspects of LifeWeb. In addition, integrated planning approaches to the management of marine protected areas have been introduced. Training was provided for the Eastern Caribbean and twinning activities on spatial planning were organised with newly established marine mammal sanctuaries.

Meanwhile, the long-established sanctuary was used to show the potential of broad-scale spatial planning for marine mammal management, including possible generation of revenue through tourism and whale-watching, the aim being to build synergies with Eastern Caribbean initiatives and the Agoa Sanctuary in the French West Antilles.

In May 2012, an Inter-regional workshop on broad-scale marine spatial planning and transboundary marine mammal management was held in Panama to review and discuss project results to date, and provide technical guidance on integrated marine spatial planning, management and governance through capacity building and exchanging experiences.

For the first time representatives of the south-east and north-east Pacific, North America and the wider Caribbean met to share and analyse maps of the large migratory routes of cetaceans, their critical habitats and the threats to them from human activities, as well as to discuss priority actions for their conservation.

Read more  at:http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/mobile/career/Marine-Mammals-still-a-priority-under-UN-LifeWeb-Project_13241558

To improve understanding of blue carbon, and highlight innovative projects that support these critical ecosystems, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched 'The Blue Carbon Portal': http://bluecarbonportal.org

Co-managed by UNEP and its Norway-based collaborative centre GRID-Arendal, the portal is the world's premier comprehensive community-based website for all matters related to blue carbon.

It aims to provide a dynamic platform to discuss blue carbon issues, illustrate blue carbon initiatives worldwide, and create a network for different projects to share information, ideas and resources.

Other features of the Blue Carbon Portal include:

 

• Updated and archived blue carbon news;

 

• Global map utility illustrating blue carbon projects and initiatives;

 

• Expert blog

 

• Resources page for all blue carbon publications, presentations and videos; and

 

• Calendar of blue carbon events;

In addition to their climate benefits, blue carbon ecosystems play a critical economic role, through the services they provide to coastal and island communities. These include nurseries for coastal fisheries, protection of shorelines, supporting of coastal tourism and cultural heritage, and the conservation of marine biodiversity.

http://www.unep.org/newscentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2700&ArticleID=9362

The collage was constructed by a team of students from Codrington Primary School, which comprised 14-year-olds Marius Bemhardt, Millie Prow and Bridget Masterton.

"Ours is an ocean planet: 70 per cent of it is covered by the seas, and it is in them that all life originated. Yet we have done far less to protect the marine environment than the much smaller part of the planet that is dry land. While almost 13 per cent of the Earth's land surface is covered by officially designated protected areas, less than 0.6 per cent of the oceans are similarly safeguarded, even on paper," Colmenares charged in his official message.

This year's global host, Rwanda - a country of exceptional biodiversity that has made huge strides on environmental protection - will lead the celebrations with three days of keynote events.

Thousands of activities will also be organized worldwide from Hong Kong to Abidjan, with beach clean-ups, concerts, exhibits, film festivals, community events and much more.