Central America OPRC Plan

Central America OPRC Plan

The Central America OPRC Plan CAOP is a plan for national, regional and international organizations oil spills preparedness and response efforts coordination in Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala) and for the implementation of the international Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation, 1990 (OPRC 90), the Cartagena Convention Oil Spill Protocol of and the Antigua Convention.

The project of ARPEL, COCATRAM and RAC/REMPEITC-Carib (Wider Caribbean) began in the 2004 within the intergovernmental Meeting Action Plan of the Agreement of Cooperation for the protection and the development sustainable environment of the Northeastern Pacific.

"Central America Oil Pollution Preparedness, response and cooperation Plan CAOP” culminated with a workshop in Panama in April of 2005. In this Program three documents have been developed:

• The comparative study (Wotherspoon, Solsberg. 2005. Study on Status of National Contingency Plans in Central American Countries. APREL) analyzed National Contingency Plan similarity and differences regarding to the strategies and the approaches in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala.

• A " Regional Cooperation Framework Proposal for oil spills preparation and response in Central America – a road map "(Framework for an regional agreement for Central America) based on the existing formats and on agreements found in the comparative study mentioned before.

• Guidelines (Wotherspoon, Solsberg. 2005. How to develop National oil spills Contingency Plans. ARPEL). This guide identifies a methodological approach or pattern to prepare National Oil Spills Contingency Plans.

Strategic Plan

CAOP Strategic Plan 2006 2007

Project Management

Objectives

• Set continual improvement of Oil Pollution Cooperation, Preparedness and Response quality in Central America (Belize, Coast Rich, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama).

• Set continual improvement of contingency plans quality in Central America.

Methodology

• Integrate and coordinate CAOP activities in continual improvement management system based on ISO (14001 - 9001).

• This International Standard is based on the methodology known as Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). PDCA can be briefly described as follows:

  1. Plan: establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the organization's CAOP MS policy.

  2. Do: implement the processes.

  3. Check: monitor and measure processes against CAOP MS policy, objectives, targets, legal and other requirements, and report the results.

  4. Act: take actions to continually improve performance of the management system.

• Each two years the Regional committee will have to meet to review the ten parts of the project:

  1. Policy
  2. Regional Committee
  3. Requirements determination
  4. National implementation programs
  5. Resources identification.