[In 2011], the Jamaica Environment Trust celebrates its 20th anniversary as Jamaica’s leading environmental organization in Environmental Education and Advocacy. Against all odds JET has reached over 300,000 students and 600 teachers in 380 schools, 9 teachers’ colleges and 52 early childhood centers. JET has pushed the envelope with 3 ground breaking law suits, the [...]
Archive | November, 2011
Jamaican court finds that national environment agency has not adhered to its own rules
The Jamaica Environment Trust has won a legal victory over that country’s National Environment and Planning Agency: When Jamaica’s environmental watchdog group approved road expansion and coastal improvement works inside the Palisadoes Port Royal Protected Area without consulting the public, environmentalists took them to court and won. Lobbying group the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) sought [...]
Caribbean bird conservation effort lauded as one of the top 20 projects funded by UNEP-GEF
A Caribbean bird conservation project has been listed at one of the 20 best projects funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). BirdLife International reports: Sustainable Conservation of Globally Important Caribbean Bird Habitats: Strengthening a Regional Network for a Shared Resource ran from 2003-2007, receiving around $1 million [...]
Moving towards a common fisheries policy for CARICOM
Progress is being made towards the development of a regional fisheries policy for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM): more than 80 people from across the Caribbean in fisheries administration, research, fisherfolk organisations and business gathered in Kingston, Jamaica, to promote the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy (CCCFP). The policy, which is an overarching set of guidelines [...]
Amid concerns about ciguatera poisoning, reassurance that lionfish caught in Bermuda are safe to eat
More about lionfish and ciguatera toxin. Experts in Bermuda are making the assurance that lionfish caught in Bermuda are safe to eat, as the prevalance of ciguatera there is extremely low: Lionfish that have invaded Bermuda’s offshore waters are perfectly edible, local experts have claimed. A recent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study in [...]
Manatee research in Belize
Sea to Shore Alliance, through research, education, and conservation, works to improve the health and productivity of coastal environments for the endangered species and human livelihoods that depend on them. Belize has the highest known population of endangered Antillean manatees in the world. In 1997, when Dr. James A. Powell began his work in this [...]
Guyanese Amerindian community learning to produce botanically-based cosmetics from local materials
The Amerindian Three Brothers Community in Guyana were recently visited by a pharmaceutical scientist, who advised them on the development of botanically-based cosmetic products from local plants: In the remote tropical forest of Guyana, the Amerindian population known as the Three Brothers Community have been producing Crabwood oil from Crabwood tree seeds (Carapa guianensis). The [...]
Developing potential for rainwater harvesting in the Caribbean
Caribbean countries should be harvesting more rainwater: Rainwater harvesting is an option that has been adopted in many areas of the world where conventional water-supply systems have failed to meet people’s needs. It can assure an independent water supply during water restrictions and is usually of acceptable quality for household needs and renewable at acceptable [...]
“Impact”: an environmentally inspired art exhibit in The Bahamas
Opening this Friday in Nassau, The Bahamas: Impact, an art exhibition exploring “current discourse about urban development and its impact on communities and the environment”: In her silkscreen prints and photographs, Holly Parotti captures the current development of Nassau under roadworks and Baha Mar through industrial objects such as orange cones, observing the historical change [...]
