The Unit­ed Na­tions En­vi­ron­ment Pro­gramme (UN­EP), Fri­day urged Ja­maica to rat­i­fy the Carta­ge­na Con­ven­tion SPAW Pro­to­col, which it de­scribes as the on­ly re­gion­al le­gal agree­ment for the pro­tec­tion of the Caribbean Sea.

In a mes­sage con­grat­u­lat­ing Ja­maica on its Na­tion­al Labour Day, UN­EP, notes that the ac­tiv­i­ties are be­ing held un­der the theme “Pro­tect the En­vi­ron­ment: Our Land, Our Du­ty, Our Fu­ture,”  and that it has the en­vi­ron­ment as its ma­jor fo­cus.

UN­EP is the world’s lead­ing voice on the en­vi­ron­ment. It pro­vides lead­er­ship and fos­ters part­ner­ship in car­ing for the en­vi­ron­ment by in­spir­ing, in­form­ing, and en­abling na­tions and peo­ples to im­prove their qual­i­ty of life with­out com­pro­mis­ing that of fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

The co­or­di­na­tor of the UN­EP Carta­ge­na Con­ven­tion Sec­re­tari­at, Chris Corbin, said that the Con­ven­tion, adopt­ed in 1983 en­tered in­to force in 1986 and is sup­port­ed by three pro­to­cols name­ly, oil spills, spe­cial­ly pro­tect­ed ar­eas and wildlife, (SPAW) and land-based sources of ma­rine pol­lu­tion (LBS).

Corbin said that these pro­to­cols guide the ef­forts as the Con­ven­tion’s Sec­re­tari­at to sup­port Ja­maica and oth­er gov­ern­ments in the re­gion to con­trol ma­rine pol­lu­tion, pro­tect en­dan­gered species, es­tab­lish ma­rine pro­tect­ed ar­eas, and sus­tain­ably man­age coastal and ma­rine re­sources.

He said Ja­maica be­came a sig­na­to­ry to the Con­ven­tion and the Oil Spills Pro­to­col on May 1, 1987, and the LBS Pro­to­col on Oc­to­ber 6, 1999. It is among 26 of the 28 coun­tries as con­tract­ing par­ties.

“On the oc­ca­sion of the 25th an­niver­sary of the en­try in­to force of the SPAW Pro­to­col this year, (June 18), and giv­en Ja­maica’s strong lead­er­ship in bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion, we en­cour­age the gov­ern­ment to take the next step by rat­i­fy­ing the SPAW Pro­to­col, the on­ly pro­to­col un­der the Carta­ge­na Con­ven­tion that it is yet to sign,”  he said.

Corbin said it would al­so be a time­ly ini­tia­tive as the re­gion and the world seek to ac­cel­er­ate im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Kun­ming-Mon­tre­al Glob­al Bio­di­ver­si­ty Frame­work which has a vi­sion of the world liv­ing in har­mo­ny with na­ture by 2050.

“We con­grat­u­late the gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica on its plans to es­tab­lish an En­vi­ron­men­tal and Re­search Park, at Ma­son Riv­er in Claren­don, a pro­tect­ed Na­tion­al Her­itage Site as the na­tion­al Labour Day project for this year."

“This im­por­tant wet­land is in­ter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized un­der the Ram­sar Con­ven­tion on Wet­lands. It is vi­tal to the liveli­hoods of com­mu­ni­ties and pro­vides di­verse ecosys­tem ser­vices in­clud­ing car­bon se­ques­tra­tion, nu­tri­ent re­cy­cling, and bio­di­ver­si­ty sup­port. The Park will un­doubt­ed­ly be­come a haven for cit­i­zens and tourists alike.”

Corbin said UN­EP is al­so com­mend­ing Ja­maica on em­bark­ing on en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion projects across the is­land.

“This is crit­i­cal as Ja­maica es­pe­cial­ly its ma­rine en­vi­ron­ment is home to many di­verse and pro­tect­ed species among them the West In­di­an Man­a­tee (Trichechus man­a­tus), The Amer­i­can Croc­o­dile (Croc­o­dy­lus acu­tus), and the hawks­bill sea tur­tle. These species re­ly on man­groves and sea­grass beds for feed­ing and shel­ter.

“How­ev­er, they are un­der threat due to habi­tat loss, boat col­li­sions, il­le­gal trade, and by­catch. Coral species such as elkhorn (Acro­p­o­ra palma­ta) and staghorn (Acro­p­o­ra cer­vi­cor­nis) have ex­pe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant de­clines due to fac­tors like dis­ease, cli­mate change, and ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion. The par­rot fish which thrive in coral en­vi­ron­ments al­so face threat due to over­fish­ing.”

Corbin said that re­cent re­ports of in­va­sive and for­eign species such as the green igua­na are al­so con­cern­ing be­cause if al­lowed to flour­ish, it can up­set the frag­ile ecosys­tem and dis­place na­tive species like the rock igua­na.

“We com­mend the au­thor­i­ties for their vig­i­lant ef­forts to stem the tide of smug­gling and en­cour­age cit­i­zens to re­main on high alert and re­fer re­lat­ed in­ci­dents prompt­ly to au­thor­i­ties when they oc­cur."

Corbin said that thanks to UN­EP part­ners, it has de­vel­oped sev­er­al pro­grammes geared to­wards pro­tect­ing the ma­rine en­vi­ron­ment.

These in­clude the Glob­al En­vi­ron­men­tal Fund-GEF LAC Cities project aimed at re­duc­ing plas­tics pol­lu­tion in Kingston, Mon­tego Bay, and oth­er cities across Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean through cir­cu­lar econ­o­my ap­proach­es.

He said Ja­maica is al­so par­tic­i­pat­ing in the GEF CReW+ Project, an in­te­grat­ed ap­proach to wa­ter and waste­water man­age­ment in the Wider Caribbean Re­gion us­ing in­no­v­a­tive so­lu­tions and sus­tain­able fi­nanc­ing mech­a­nisms.

“The project seeks to demon­strate the reuse of treat­ed waste­water ef­flu­ent from the NWC’s Innswood Waste­water Treat­ment Plant to as­sist with the op­er­a­tion of the Wa­ter Re­source’s Au­thor­i­ty Man­aged Ar­ti­fi­cial Recharge Sys­tem. “

He said UN­EP’s small grants pro­gramme fund­ed by the Eu­ro­pean Union- African, Caribbean, and Pa­cif­ic Mul­ti­lat­er­al En­vi­ron­men­tal Agree­ments III Pro­gramme is hav­ing a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on em­pow­er­ing com­mu­ni­ties such as Blue­fields in West­more­land to en­hance ma­rine pro­tect­ed area man­age­ment and re­duce ma­rine lit­ter.

“More re­cent­ly we part­nered with the gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica and the gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed King­dom on a tech­ni­cal ca­pac­i­ty project that fo­cus­es on how wa­ter qual­i­ty in coastal ar­eas im­pacts sus­tain­able blue economies.”

Corbin said that launched un­der the UK’s Sus­tain­able Blue Economies Pro­gramme, the “En­hanc­ing Wa­ter Qual­i­ty for Sus­tain­able Blue Econ­o­my De­vel­op­ment” ini­tia­tive will mo­bi­lize UK sci­en­tif­ic ex­per­tise and re­gion­al knowl­edge to ad­dress ma­rine pol­lu­tion, an es­ca­lat­ing threat to Ja­maica’s eco­nom­ic growth, food se­cu­ri­ty, and en­vi­ron­men­tal health.

“At the Carta­ge­na Con­ven­tion Sec­re­tari­at, we con­tin­ue to adapt and re­spond to emerg­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges, safe­guard­ing the Caribbean Sea and the liveli­hoods it sup­ports. We re­main com­mit­ted to work­ing with the gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica and oth­er key stake­hold­ers to max­i­mize new op­por­tu­ni­ties and en­sure a sus­tain­able fu­ture for its peo­ple,” Corbin said.

KINGSTON, Ja­maica, May 23, CMC -

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