Residents and stakeholders of the Nelson’s Dockyard National Park (NDNP) are to gather on Wednesday evening to discuss two important plans that will impact the NDNP. The first is a Natural Resources Management Plan , and the second is the NDNP Marine Spatial Plan. Wednesday, March 25th’s joint public consultation on both plans is happening at the Cobbs Cross Primary School from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm and forms part of a range of measures being undertaken to engage key stakeholders and communities.
Both plans are being developed as part of an ongoing climate resilience project in the NDNP known as the EbA Caribbean Projec t, which is active in Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. In Antigua and Barbuda, the project is being implemented in the NDNP by the nonprofit organisation, Integrated Health Outreach (IHO) , in collaboration with the National Parks Authority (NPA).
The joint consultation on March 25th forms part of consultancies led by a team from the Centre of Excellence of Oceanography and the Blue Economy (COBE) at the University of the West Indies, Five Islands. The COBE has been engaged under the EbA Caribbean Project to develop the Natural Resource Management Plan and the Marine Spatial Plan, working in tandem with the National Parks Authority, the management authority for the NDNP.
Discussions on the Natural Resources Management Plan will involve issues such as management priorities for land, coastal, and marine ecosystems and discussions on the governance framework. Among the issues that will be addressed in relation to the NDNP Marine Spatial Plan are pollution and waste management, designating marine areas, and discussions on areas for conservation, fishing priority and other marine uses.
Wednesday’s joint public consultation follows several engagements organised so far over the course of the EbA Caribbean Project, designed to ensure that stakeholder engagement and community participation inform the project’s outcomes. In February, residents and stakeholders participated in two (2) community consultations as part of a Sustainable Fisheries and Land Management Workshop organised under the EbA Caribbean Project.
Kieron Murdoch, Communications Officer with IHO, states, “Engaging the community continues to be an extremely important part of the work being done by everyone attached to this project. It’s vital to ensure that at the end of the day, the results of the work being done are results that were informed by the experiences of those who live, work and operate with the National Park.”
The EbA Caribbean Project aims to build resilience to climate change through an ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approach. Funded by the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF), the official title of the project is: Strengthening regional climate resilience and supporting green economic recovery through ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and sustainable livelihoods in the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, and Jamaica.
It is co-financed by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Environment through KfW Development Bank in Germany. It is implemented by the UN Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Oracabessa Marine Trust (OMT), Integrated Health Outreach Inc. (IHO), Consorcio Ambiental Dominicano, Inc. (CAD), and the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC).
For inquiries or interviews, please contact IHO at +1 268-778-4446 or info@ihoab.com.