OECS Discusses Regional Marine Biodiversity Conservation and Sea Turtle Monitoring

CASTRIES, St. Lucia – The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) says there are an estimated 12,046 recorded marine species in the Caribbean region with 31 phyla, or groups of related organisms, represented.

However, it notes that these species face several major threats, including plastic and chemical pollution, climate change, diseases, and over exploitation.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), over 1,550 marine plants and animals are at risk of extinction globally, many of which are found in the Caribbean.

The St. Lucia-based OECS Commission through the EU-funded BioSPACE Project, has hosted a regional marine biodiversity conservation workshop and sea turtle monitoring training in Dominica for regional stakeholders.

It said several activities were undertaken to strengthen the capacity of the stakeholders to manage, conserve and sustainably use marine, coastal and terrestrial biodiversity, and to increase their capacity to successfully manage a turtle monitoring program towards the conservation of sea turtle species.

“Hosting of this training workshop contributes to the implementation of key OECS frameworks and action plans, including the St. George’s Declaration (SGD) of Principles for Environmental Sustainability,” said the head of the OECS Environmental Sustainability Division, Chamberlain Emmanuel.

The OECS Commission said that the agenda set out in the SGD 2040 responds to priority environmental problems and opportunities for nature-based solutions in the Eastern Caribbean.

It said the marine biodiversity conservation workshop focused on identifying and addressing the threats to biodiversity and discussing the role of marine biodiversity in the promotion of the Blue Economy.

“Quite often, we take it for granted that the basis for lots of our medicines is actually from marine organisms and plants. We have a lot of the marine sponges that are at the forefront of developing a lot of the medicines we use for cancer, etc,” said Dr. Stephen Nimrod, marine biologist, and the workshop facilitator.

Increasingly, threats to marine biodiversity are being taken seriously because of their implications for the current and future use of these important resources. Currently, Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is decimating many coral reef ecosystems in the region,” the Commission added.