conference magazine - Caribbean Environmental Health Institute

the importance of the vision of IWCAM for the formal education
(through the ICZM masters programme) of specialists, functionaries
and decision-makers; making them more conscious of the environment-society
relationship and educating them for active participation
in the decision-making process and 2) - to define how this process
was executed through modifications to the original ICZM Masters
Programme. The IWCAM vision and approach has also spread
to the Villa Clara and Matanzas provinces. The success of the
masters programme paved the way for an IWCAM diploma course
in 2008 catering to specialists and functionaries of Cienfuegos province.
The was implemented in CEAC with the graduation of 26 students
from 12 different enterprises, 7 of these graduated are now
pursuing the Master’s in ICZM.
A Model for Sustainable Watershed Management: The Case of
Drivers River, Portland, Jamaica by Lisa Kirkland
Jamaica is divided into twenty-six Watershed Management Units
(WMUs). Over the years it has been a challenge to sustainably
manage these watersheds. A Watershed Model was developed
under the Global Environment Facility funded Project, “Integrating
Watershed and Coastal Areas Management (GEF - IWCAM), implemented
by National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA),
using an integrated approach in the Drivers River Watershed Management
Unit of Portland. The aim of the model is to provide watershed
practitioners, government agencies, NGOs, funding agencies
and the ordinary citizens a simple, practical and flexible method of
achieving sustainable watershed management using lessons
learned from previous projects as well as other local and regional
watershed initiatives. Hence, the Model is intrinsically Caribbean in
nature.
It is envisioned that this Model will be implemented on a wide scale,
as it calls for the involvement of all stakeholders “pooling” together
their limited resources to bring about the much needed rehabilitation
of watersheds and this is definitely needed in these trying economic
times. The strength of the model therefore lies in the ability
of state agencies and communities to collaborate and deliver improvement
in watersheds as seen in the case of the Drivers Watershed.
It also provides a means of replication which eliminates overlapping
or duplication of efforts. Further the Model is practical allowing
an implementer to deliver initiatives on a phased basis until
resources are available to implement the Model in its entirety.
This paper outlines and examines the ten components of the GEF-
IWCAM/NEPA Watershed Model which are as follows:
1. Engaging the Community
2. Governance Approach
3. Reconnaissance of Resources
4. Capacity Building through Training
5. Established Indicators for Assessment and Evaluation
6. Environmental Monitoring, Mitigation and Evaluation
7. Capacity Building to Access External Funds for
Community Project
8. Developing Sustainable Livelihoods
9. Capturing Lessons Learnt
10. Broadcasting the Experience
The mechanism by which the Model is to be implemented is by the
use of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The Secretariat
for the Model would be the NEPA and the progress and use of the
Model will be tracked and made available to all partner agencies
as well as other interested parties. To date after the engagement
of twelve (12) agencies, ten (10) have signed the MOU.
Watershed Modeling in the Caribbean: Application of Geographic
Information Systems in the Assessment and Management
of Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution by Marko
Tosic
Considerable documentation has been produced showing the
degradation of marine environments caused by land-based
sources (LBS) of pollution, the mitigation of which constitutes the
mandate of the LBS Protocol of the Cartagena Convention. Effective
management of these pollutants requires assessment of the
various terrestrial sources of pollution and the overall loads of
pollutants discharged to the marine environment. However, estimating
pollutant loads may present a significant challenge without
sufficient technical and financial resources, which is commonly the
case in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR). The application of
geographic information systems (GIS) presents an efficient and
cost-effective means for both managing an inventory of LBS of
pollution and calculating estimates of effluent pollutant loads. GISbased
watershed models allow users to predict the discharge of
surface water runoff and the pollutants carried with it based on
hydrological monitoring data and a GIS database of watershed
characteristics. This paper reviews examples of watershed
modeling done in the WCR and compares the models, data, and
resources needed in the case of each example. This paper also
presents the past and future GIS capacity building efforts of the
Assessment and Management of Environmental Pollution (AMEP)
Sub-Programme of the UNEP’s Caribbean Environment Programme
and its GEF-funded Integrating Watershed and Coastal
Areas Management in Caribbean Small Island Developing States
(IWCAM) Project.
Developing Integrated Water Resource Management in the
Republic of Palau by Metiek Kimie Ngirchechol and Lynna Thomas
Watershed management in the Republic of Palau has been constrained
by the lack of effective mechanisms to integrate the diverse
range of community interests in decision making. This is
largely due to overlapping and fragmented efforts from numerous
government agencies with responsibilities for land and water management.
A burgeoning coastal tourism sector, overloaded wastewater
and treatment infrastructure, and coastal water quality problems
are driving demand for more streamlined delivery of water
related services in Palau. This paper outlines initiatives to address
this need through the adoption of Integrated Water Resources
Management approaches in Palau which focus on “ridge to reef”
and “community to cabinet” principles. The first step in this process
has involved actions aimed at establishing effective crosssectorial
collaboration at the national level, and the creation of
efficient inter-linkages and feed back loops between national and
community priorities and actions. These include the review and
design of the policy and legal settings to facilitate
FIFTH BIENNIAL CARIBBEAN ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM AND EXHIBITION
27
A
B
S
T
R
A
C
T
S