CCI-CBF Week: Nature-Based Solutions for our Caribbean Future
The Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) and the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) will be hosting the 2020 instalment of their annual CCI-CBF Week as a virtual event this year, from July 13 to 16, 2020. The theme of the 2020 CCI-CBF week is Nature-Based Solutions for our Caribbean Future, and there …
Conserving fish biodiversity helps protect coral reef health
Research from the Dominican Republic shows how greater fish biodiversity makes for healthier coral reefs: The health of coral reefs can be impacted as much by the diversity of fish that graze on them as by the amount of fish that do so, according to a new study by scientists …
Stony coral tissue loss disease spreads through the northern Caribbean
In recent weeks both St. Maarten and the US Virgin Islands have reported cases of stony coral tissue loss disease. The first incidence of stony coral tissue loss disease was recorded in 2014 in Miami-Dade county in Florida, and the disease has since spread south through the Florida Keys. Outbreaks …
Beneath the Waves and shark conservation in The Bahamas
Marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez writes about shark conservation organisation Beneath the Waves and the research they are doing in The Bahamas. According to Dr. Austin Gallagher, the organisation’s Chief Scientist, “There are few places worldwide that are as important to sharks than the Bahamas.” In 2018, Beneath the Waves launched one …
The disappearance of insects from Puerto Rico’s rainforests is a “hyper-alarming” sign
The UK Guardian reports on the collapse of insect populations in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo rainforest. Plummeting insect populations, in Puerto Rico and other parts of the world, have been attributed to climate change, and could have effects that ripple through entire ecosystems and food webs: “We knew that something was …
Green turtles have made a comeback in the Cayman Islands due to reintroduction programmes
Science Daily reports on the success of a programme to reintroduce the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) to the Cayman Islands: During the eighties, overexploitation of the green turtle in the Cayman Islands caused the disappearance of nesting populations. To recover this endangered population, a program of reintroduction of the species …
Betty Petersen Conservation Fund awards grants to help conserve endangered birds in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Saint Lucia
BirdsCaribbean has announced the first three recipients of grants from the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund. The selected projects, which all focus on conserving endangered birds endemic to the Caribbean, are based in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Saint Lucia. In Haiti, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) will be continuing …