Integrated Watershed Management

Water runs downhill resulting in land-based activities being responsible for 80 per cent of the pollution of the oceans and numerous health impacts. As a consequence, the proper management of our watersheds is essential for the protection of the marine environment and health of the region’s people. The Integrated Watershed Management theme will address activities impacting the watershed such as agriculture, forestry, land use and planning, tourism, and wastewater treatment. More specifically, the theme will discuss how to protect water supplies by addressing appropriate technologies, water conservation, and land use policy. Integrating tourism development will also be key. How can we transfer benefits, mitigate land degradation, help enforcement and compliance, and collect data on tourism impacts?

For more information, contact the Co-Chair for the Integrated Watershed Management group: Emil Cherrington, CATHALAC, 507-317-1640, emil.cherrington@cathalac.org

Or:

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

Marine Ecosystem-based Management

The Marine Ecosystem Theme will include presentations and discussions within the structure of the Large Marine Ecosystem approach to ensuring the long-term productivity and sustainability of the living resources and the environment. This concept is predicated on the fact that marine pollution and living marine resources respect no political and few geographical boundaries. Management requires a large scale, concerted and holistic approach for assessment and control actions, that can accommodate scaling up from small local embayments and estuarine problem areas to national and international ecosystem-wide sustainability problems areas. Breakout groups will be organized around the following modules: Productivity; Fish and Fisheries (includes conservation of biodiversity); Ecosystem Health and Pollution; Socioeconomic Factors; and Governance (includes adaptive management and stakeholder participation).

For more information, contact the Co-Chair for the Marine Eco-System Management group:

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

Sustainable Tourism

The Sustainable Tourism Subcommittee will address priority sustainable development issues in the tourism sector. Specific areas that may be identified may include master planning, community tourism, destination management, guidelines for tour operations, the environmental management of hotels, the education of tourists, and standards and certifications. Throughout, the Subcommittee will remain focused on integrating approaches across sectors in order to fully address issues and involve all relevant partners. The Subcommittee will identify relevant partners from international organizations, NGOs, academia, governments, and the private sector who will collaborate on solutions, contribute to projects and programs, engage in training and capacity building, or take other actions to further sustainable tourism.

For more information, contact the Co-Chair for the Sustainable Tourism group: (to be determined)

Environmentally Sound Marine Transportation

The issue of Environmentally Sound Marine Transportation is an integral part of the White Water to Blue Water Initiative (WW2BW), because the impacts from boats and ships range from the coastal and near shore environments to blue water. These impacts can be divided into two general categories: operational impacts (e.g., the discharge of wastes, anchor damage, damage caused by wake or propulsion, noise) and accidental impacts (e.g., groundings, collisions). The Environmentally Sound Marine Transportation segment of WW2BW will promote partnerships to address these impacts. Partnerships provide a practical and effective mechanism to involve private industry, governments, non-governmental organizations, academia, funding institutions, international institutions, and others in supporting environmentally sound marine transportation in the Region. While the focus of this segment is to address adverse environmental impacts, it also recognizes that vessels of all types and sizes yield important benefits to the Region including through the generation of tourism and providing the means for the import and export of goods. Thus linkages and partnerships, taking into account all interests, will be encouraged and facilitated before, during, and after the Miami Conference.

For more information, contact the Co-Chair for the Environmentally Sound Marine Transportation group contact:

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

Cross Cutting Activities in Communication and Environmental Education

In addition to the four main programmatic thrusts however, a great deal of WW2BW activities also concentrate on ‘public awareness’, ‘communication’ and ‘environmental education’. These are generally cross-cutting activities that support the work partners are doing in the main 4 priority areas.