[Fwd:First-Ever International Wildlife Protection Treaty Established for Caribbean]

> First-Ever International Wildlife Protection Treaty Established for Caribbean
> UNEP and IFAW Applaud Action
>
> KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations Environment
> Program (UNEP) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW--
> www.ifaw.org) today joined in applauding nine Caribbean countries for passing
> a groundbreaking law which will pave the way for greater coordination and
> protection of marine biodiversity in the wider-Caribbean. The international
> law called the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife
> (SPAW) highlights the region's growing recognition of the need to conserve
> threatened, endangered and depleted wildlife species and to encourage
> sustainable management of coastal and ocean resources.
>
> It has taken a full decade for nine countries to ratify or accede to SPAW;
> the requisite number needed before the Agreement could become legally
> binding. To date, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, St.
> Vincent and the Grenadines, Panama, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and St.
> Lucia are Parties of the SPAW Agreement. France, Guatamala, Jamaica, Mexico,
> UK and USA have signed but have not yet ratified it. The SPAW Protocol -
> created in 1990 by the 28-country Cartagena Convention -- will protect
> species of fauna & flora listed in the protocol's three Annexes, including
> for example all species of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), sea
> turtles, manatees, crocodiles and coral reefs.
>
> UNEP and IFAW continue to work together to highlight the importance of the
> agreement for the region and to motivate governments to become Parties and
> actively participate in its implementation. For the SPAW Protocol to become
> fully effective -- protecting the whole of the Caribbean Sea --key countries
> including the United States, Mexico, France and the United Kingdom are being
> urged to sign the Agreement.
>
> According to Alessandra Vanzella-Khouri of UNEP's Caribbean Environment
> program, "The UNEP Secretariat is extremely pleased to have achieved this
> goal. However, we all recognize the real work lies ahead. We are confident
> that the SPAW framework will lead to enhanced conservation and sustainable
> management of this region's precious coastal and marine resources."
>
> IFAW has been working towards the ratification of the SPAW Protocol since
> 1996 and has worked in partnership with UNEP on the translation and
> distribution of IFAW's education materials on the marine environment. IFAW
> has also provided UNEP with documentation that has been used in developing a
> marine mammal action plan for the region.
>
> Jared Blumenfeld, IFAW Director of Habitat, said today, "IFAW congratulates
> the wider-Caribbean nations for passing the most advanced marine conservation
> agreement of the new century. IFAW hopes today's momentum will catapult the
> critical issues addressed by SPAW to the front and center of the region's
> political agenda."
>
> Other countries who have recently announced their intention to ratify the
> protocol are Belize, Dominica, France, Jamaica and the United Kingdom, which
> would still leave 14 states to become Parties to the protocol that covers an
> area from Florida, Mexico and the Bahamas down to Guyana, Suriname and the
> French Guiana, and eastward to the Eastern Caribbean.

--
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Yacine Khelladi  <yacine@aacr.net>
http://kiskeya-alternative.org/yacine
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