The list presented below is a non-exhaustive set of partnerships and projects that is intended to be a living document. We invite interested parties to submit descriptions of their ongoing or planned activities and partnerships to be recognized in the Action Plan. The Action Plan also describes aspects of the WW2BW outreach and communication strategy for the upcoming biennium.

Program Areas

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Integrated Water Management

Co-Chairs: Emil Cherrington, CATHALAC
Vincent Sweeney, UNEP

1) Linking Watershed and Coastal Management with Water Safety

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and partner organizations have initiated a complementary program for a National Program of Action (NPA) and the World Health Organization’s Water Safety Plan (WSP) methodology, in collaboration with Guyanese government authorities for the environment. A NPA is a management tool that is designed to prevent and/or eliminate marine degradation from land-based activities through an integrated watershed and coastal management approach. A WSP is a comprehensive approach to assuring drinking water safety that relies on environment and health sector collaboration to identify, assess, monitor, and manage risks inherent in a water delivery system from “catchment to consumer.”
The combined NPA/WSP strategy will result in an integrated water protection strategy to address land-based sources of pollution, and water safety as well as public health.
The Global Environment Facility project on Integrated Watershed and Coastal Area Management (IWCAM) has placed a similar emphasis on the need to integrate planning in relation to Water Safety Plans. An IWCAM workshop on this topic was held in June 2006 in Antigua.
Interim results and lessons learned from the collaborative effort in Guyana will be shared with IWCAM partners via the WW2BW website and in a future workshop.
Partners: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), the World Health Organization and IWCAM.
2) Caribbean Revolving Fund for Wastewater Management (CReW)

UNEP has recognized the need for a permanent, dedicated multi-country fund for wastewater management projects in the Caribbean basin. The fund should be flexible enough to operate in countries with highly developed capital markets such as Mexico and at the same time able to invest in rural micro-credit facilities in less-developed countries such as Haiti.

UNEP intends to submit a Project Information Form (PIF) to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as an initial step in obtaining a substantial, multi-million-dollar (U.S.) initial capitalization grant from the GEF for the CReW.

UNEP has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Caribbean Health Environment Institute (CEHI) in St. Lucia to compile a Needs Assessment for the wastewater treatment needs in the basin. Upon its approval, the PIF will lead to GEF funding for a Financial Resource Assessment of the region as well. Together, the Needs Assessment and the Financial Resource Assessment will form the basis of a full feasibility study. The full feasibility study will then be used to seek individual country buy-in and private sector support. The feasibility study will also set forth the scope and array of funding modalities for the CReW.

Partners: UNEP, GEF, InterAmerican Development Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, the respective ministries of the 28 countries, the financial services industries in each of the participating countries as well as environmental and development NGOs.

3) Mesoamerican Water Alliance
The Mesoamerican Water Alliance was initiated at the WW2BW Miami Conference. It is a network of about 40 NGOs and community groups furthering community-based watershed management and the introduction of compensation for ecosystem services as a freshwater stewardship strategy. This emerging network of NGO and community practitioners also works with the private sector and local and national government agencies. The Alliance has proven to be a powerful framework to promote and exchange lessons learned and foster best practices among participants.
As lead partner, the EcoLogic Development Fund will facilitate the network, planning a series of workshops, an annual meeting of practitioners, writing and publicizing two case studies per year and establishment of an online networking/list serve.
Partners: EcoLogic Development Fund, and forty NGOs and community groups in Mesoamerica.

Environmentally Sound Marine Transportation

Chair: Rod Zika, University of Miami

1) Anchor’s Away!

The Anchor’s Away partnership was developed under WW2BW as part of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF) Coral Reef Conservation Program. Anchor’s Away provides small grants to foster partnerships to install and maintain mooring buoys to protect sensitive coral reef resources from anchor damage and to identify marine protected areas in the Gulf of Mexico and the Wider Caribbean Region. NOAA funds the program, and NFWF administers the grants. Most grants range between $15,000 and $50,000. The average grant is approximately $30,000.

NOAA and NFWF have hired Foundations of Success to host a meeting on December 13, 2006, to evaluate the success of the program. Applications for the 2007 funding cycle are due on January 31, 2007. For more information, see: http://www.nfwf.org/programs/coral_funding.cfm.

Partners: NOAA and NFWF. Potential future partners (grantees) could include non-profit organizations, academic institutions and government agencies.


2) No Anchoring Areas
At the WW2BW Partnership Conference (Miami, March 2004), Aruba, Barbados, Grenada, and Jamaica identified their island states as having experienced damage to coral reefs from ships' anchors. In response, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), NOAA and Caribbean Conservation Alliance (CCA) collaborated in the development of a workshop to teach the process of and aid in the drafting of IMO proposals to designate No Anchoring Areas for the protection of coral reefs. Government representatives from Aruba, Jamaica, and Barbados came together in Barbados April 11-12, 2006 to participate in the workshop, to share their local concerns of coral reef anchor damage and to draft their respective proposals to the IMO. Outputs of the workshop included: three draft IMO proposals from each of the participating states, identification of the next steps in the IMO process, creation of an email network of participants, and methods for sharing the workshop process with other interested states.
Once they have been finalized, governments will submit their No Anchoring Areas proposals to the IMO. Barbados is expected to submit its proposal in the next IMO cycle.
Partners: US State Department, IUCN, NOAA, CCA, the Governments of Aruba, Jamaica, Barbados.

Sustainable Tourism

Chair: (currently vacant)

1) Sea Turtle Ecotourism Certification Program for the Wider Caribbean

The Sea Turtle Ecotourism Certification Program builds on existing best management practices for sea turtle ecotourism operations, recently published by the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST). The program was designed to encompass three main areas: (i) Development of standards for sea turtle ecotourism operations and for beach hotels; (ii) Development of a training program to help these stakeholders implement best management practices; and (iii) Development of a marketing strategy to promote the certification program for hotels, park managers, community-based organizations NGOs, tour operators, and others. Much progress has been made thus far, and the program hopes to eventually have 44 countries involved.

Partners: WIDECAST, The Nature Conservancy, Rare Animal Relief Effort (RARE) and others.

Marine Ecosystem Based Management

Chair: Leslie Walling, Caribbean Conservation Association

1) Caribbean Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (LME)
At present the overall objective of the project and of the participating 26 countries and 19 dependent territories is the recovery and sustainability of the shared marine resources of the Caribbean Sea LME. Countries are now in the process of drafting a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), and a Strategic Action Plan to identify gaps in the assessment of ecosystem components and to allow for the placement of LME-level monitoring, evaluation, reporting and management for shared resources of the ecosystem. A sum of $9 million has been allocated by the GEF to support the planning and implementation of the program. Activities will include the assessment of changing states of the Caribbean Sea LME in relation to its (i) Productivity; (ii) Fish and Fisheries; (iii) Pollution and Ecosystem Health; (iv) Socioeconomic development; and (v) Governance mechanisms for ecosystem management practices. NOAA is providing scientific and technical support to a new GEF financed Caribbean Sea LME project that introduces the ecosystem-based approach by the countries of the Caribbean for the assessment and management of the goods and services of the Caribbean Sea LME.
Partners: GEF, NOAA
2) Marine Mammal Stranding and Response Training

In November 2005, NOAA Fisheries and UNEP co-sponsored the first Eastern Caribbean Marine Mammal Stranding Response Training Workshop (MMSW), which was hosted by the University of the West Indies Veterinary School of Medicine in Trinidad. The workshop provided stranding response and necropsy training to participants from five Eastern Caribbean islands. The MMSW Workshop was a two-year process, developed under the WW2BW initiative and coordinated by the Eastern Caribbean Cetacean Network. The goal of the Workshop was to review the techniques and protocols for responding to stranding incidents for marine mammals (Level I training), and to facilitate capacity building and possibilities for collaboration of countries in the region.

Partners: NOAA, UNEP, The University of West Indies and others
3) International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008

A decision from the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) General Council Meeting designated 2008 as the Year of the Reef. Similarly, the Conference of the Parties to the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife Protocol of the Cartagena Convention endorsed the designation and urged the Caribbean Environment Programme Secretariat to actively work at both the national and regional levels on the preparatory and follow-up activities for this campaign. WW2BW could serve as a platform for publicizing IYOR to its wide network of partners, encouraging their participation and active support.
Partners: To be determined

Outreach and Communication

Communication is one of the most important services WW2BW provides for partners. As part of the new WW2BW strategic plan, communication will improve through efforts to renovate the WW2BW.org website, develop outreach strategies for the private sector, disseminate the recently updated WW2BW fact sheet and continue the quarterly newsletter. To assist the outreach effort WW2BW has developed capacity building primers, Mobilizing Resources, Communicating Successes and the forthcoming Demonstrating Effectiveness.

Each new communication tool will be released through the website, please check frequently for updates.

1) Training of Trainers Concept for Extending use of the “Communicating Successes” and ‘Mobilizing Resources’ Primers

For countries and partners interested in further training we can provide capacity building for local NGOs and other interested organizations. WW2BW’s executive and steering committee members have produced two very important resources. There is now urgent need to get them into the hands of the people they are meant to serve most. The documents have been translated into Spanish and are available on the website and have been sent through the listserve, but in order to enhance the likelihood of being fully utilized, WW2BW will host ‘training of trainer’ sessions for each primer.

2) Social Responsibility Network

Mexican scientists have launched a social responsibility forum, the Union of Scientists Committed to Society (UCCS) indicating that science should play a stronger role in understanding societal concerns. White Water to Blue Water partners can tap into the planned monthly discussions on topics relating to environmental sustainability. The expert led conversations will provide an opportunity to link Caribbean scientific / professional / academic partners with Mexican colleagues exploring similar areas of concern.

Practitioners and scientists interested in participating in the Unión can register at unionccs.org. Roundtables of interest in the near future include: 1) Ecological Destruction and Environmental Justice, March 2007 2) Science and Communication
June 2007, 3) Science and Indigenous Knowledge September 2007.

3) Demonstrating Effectiveness
As a follow-up to the first two primers developed through the White Water to Blue Water partnership Demonstrating Effectiveness will build on the concepts of Communicating Success and Mobilizing Resources, which provide guidance on how to communicate progress by public-private partnerships and how to more effectively obtain resources. Demonstrating Effectiveness will focus specific guidance on how to demonstrate to funding entities, stakeholders and/or potential partners that proposed activities are progressing or that stated objectives are achieved.

As an example, Demonstrating Effectiveness will address the needs of practitioners to demonstrate the impacts of long-term projects or those that take place across a dispersed region. Other potential topics may include: demonstrating financial comfort to auditors, demonstrating impact on Large Marine Ecosystems (e.g. corals, sea turtle populations), demonstrating buy-in from stakeholders, or demonstrating value to funding entities or partners. As a lead partner PricewaterhouseCoopers will compile case-studies and tease out key insights from White Water to Blue Water Partners and develop the third primer beginning in early 2007. The team will seek out additional WW2BW public-private partnerships in the Caribbean region willing to showcase their success stories.

Partners: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, EcoLogic Development Fund, The U.S. Department of State, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CATHALAC, Caribbean Conservation Corporation, United Nations Environment Programme, University of Miami. (Partners are not yet confirmed)

4) Raising the Profile of Local Projects

Local projects throughout the region can benefit from wider recognition. WW2BW offers a way to share stories with friends and partners about your work through the dynamic website, the quarterly newsletter, the listserve and links to other websites. The initiative’s goal is to help practitioners reach more people with information about ongoing work, existing needs and future plans. Interested parties may contact WW2BW via the website with information on updates or stories to be distributed through the WW2BW communication network.

5) Awards
Environmental stewardship has its own rewards but publicity and recognition of environmentally responsible projects can be extremely useful. WW2BW – as a network and alliance – shall offer its own regional award (or set of awards for the different thematic areas) for businesses or organizations that have demonstrated exemplary work and have adopted WW2BW’s partnership principles. This prestigious award will highlight and attract other partnerships throughout the region.

6) Private Sector Engagement Strategy

The need to better engage the private sector was clearly identified as a key priority during the Panama 2005 meeting. Since then, a conceptual approach for involving them has been initiated and is being more fully elaborated by a core group. The conceptual strategy views the private sector as collaborators and partners. WW2BW will present itself to potential private sector partners as a network of professional organizations with skills, information and other services that can deliver important ‘value added’ to private sector partners and help to make a difference to their own ‘bottom line’

Infrastructure

The WW2BW Executive Committee is developing a series of infrastructure tools which may include:

Development and branding of the WW2BW logo for projects and partnerships

Articulation of the WW2BW message for various media outlets

Harmonization of the website, newsletter and listserve

Next Steps

Progress reports on the components of the 2007-2008 action plan will be posted on the WW2BW.org website. In addition results will be presented at future meetings of the WW2BW Council.

Contact Information

Integrated Watershed Management

Emil Cherrington
CATHALAC
507-317-1640
emil.cherrington@cathalac.org

Vincent Sweeney
Regional Project Coordinator, UNEP
Integrating Watershed &
Coastal Areas Management (IWCAM) Project
c/o CEHI
P.O. Box 1111, The Morne
Castries, St. Lucia
Tel. 758-452-2501 or 452-1412
Fax 758-453-2721
Email: Vincent.Sweeney@unep.org

Sustainable Tourism

Chair: Currently Vacant

Environmentally Sound Marine Transportation

Prof. Rod G. Zika
RSMAS/MAC
University of Miami
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
Telephone: 305.421.4731
Fax: 305.421.4689
rzika@rsmas.miami.edu

Marine Ecosystem Based Management

Leslie Walling
Caribbean Conservation Association
(246) 426-5373
www.ccanet.net

Infrastructure

Franklin J. McDonald
UNEP – CAR/RCU
14-20 Port Royal St., Kingston, JAMAICA
Phone (1-876)-922-9267 to 9
fjm@cep.unep.org