Green Antilles

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is inviting entries for the 2012 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest for the Caribbean:

IDEAS– is an Energy Innovation Contest intended to support the development of innovative projects and ideas promoting renewable energies, and improving energy efficiency and the access to energy in the region.

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Simple innovations can have a dramatic effect on the way businesses and markets operate in developing countries. Countries in the Caribbean have great potential for the development of economically and environmentally sustainable projects in key areas, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and biofuels. Local innovation and the adaptation of existing technologies to local circumstances are essential for increasing the competitiveness of renewable energy services and tackling environmental concerns. This competition seeks to support innovative projects, enterprises, and applied technology initiatives focused on the adoption, innovation, assimilation, development and transfer of technology in connection with renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, having a tangible impact on the local or regional area, while supporting the development of sustainable economies and reducing poverty.

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Purpose:
To support the development of innovative projects, enterprises, and applied technology projects aimed at the adoption, innovation, assimilation, development and transfer of technologies in connection with renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, energy access, climate change mitigation and fossil fuel substitution.

How to Apply:
Applicants must fill in an online application form available at IDEAS’ webpage: online application form.

Each applicant may submit only one application. Applications will be accepted in Spanish, English or French. Applications are eligible from the following Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

Deadline for submission of applications:
The proposals must be submitted once the online application form, available at IDEAS’ webpage: online application form, has been filled out between 15 February and 30 April, 2012. Any application received after this date will not be considered.

Find out more at the contest website.

Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC), a conservation organisation based in St. Maarten recently published a Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles:

Documenting new seabird-colony Important Bird Areas, finding previously undocumented colonies and colonies thought to be extirpated: these are just some of the exciting discoveries reported within Environmental Protection in the Caribbean’s (EPIC’s) ground-breaking Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles.

Stretching in an arc from Anguilla to Grenada, the Lesser Antilles are the final frontier between the Caribbean Sea and the vast expanses of the Atlantic Ocean. A full seabird census had previously never been undertaken in the region – our knowledge often being based on anecdotal notes from the early 19th century.

Over an 11-month study period (2009 – 2010), EPIC’s partners Katharine and David Lowrie, sailed 3,162 nautical miles, surveying by land and/or sea 200 islands capable of supporting seabirds, with each island surveyed in the winter breeding season and again during the summer.

David Wege, Senior Caribbean Program Manager, BirdLife International says the study is “What can only be described as a truly inspirational research voyage…the results are astounding”.

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The EPIC Atlas provides vital data on this poorly studied group of birds. It includes species accounts for all 18 species; island accounts including abundance and distribution of breeding colonies and threats; detailed methods and data analysis and discussion of the priority breeding sites and species of concern in the study area.

Natalia Collier, EPIC President elaborates, “The vision for the Atlas was born out of frustration over the huge gaps in information in the region for simple facts, such as the breeding locations for certain species or the main threats for each site. It was crucial that the Atlas provided transparent, standardised methods and analysis to facilitate future seabird monitoring in the region, and to prioritise conservation efforts”.

Find out more about the Atlas in this report from Surfbirds.com. The Atlas can be purchased from CreateSpace and Amazon.com. Other publications from EPIC’s Seabirds programme are available for download from epicislands.org.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is concerned about the shipment of nuclear waste and other hazardous materials through the Caribbean:

There is concern over the transportation of hazardous nuclear waste and other hazardous material through the Caribbean Sea which are potential threats to lives, health, the environment and our economies.

This comes from Ambassador Raymond Wolfe, speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to the [United Nations] General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.

He said that the focus on shipping and maritime commerce must also include improved measures, regulations and standards governing maritime safety, the training of seafarers and the safety of navigation at sea, including the safety of shipping vessels.

“Within this context, we support the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO in its work on the continual development of materials for use in the construction of ships and improvement of maritime safety standards, including safety of life at sea. However, while CARICOM acknowledges the rights of Member States to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, there still remains a concern,” he stressed.

According to Ambassador Wolfe, CARICOM countries continue to work in partnership with the UN Environment Programme in the implementation of the regional seas conventions and action plans.

He said the region welcomed the establishment of two new working groups on reviewing lists under the Protocol relating to Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife to the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean.

“We will continue to support and to co-operate with the UNEP Caribbean Environment Programme in anticipation of the completion of the first phase of the biodiversity initiative. The UN has been playing a vital role in the governance of the world’s oceans and seas and CARICOM will continue to extend its full co-operation to the Organisation in its work activities to promote and sustain the use and importance of the oceans and its resources as the common heritage of mankind.”

Source.

We often hear about insects and other animals passing on diseases to humans, so-called zoonotic diseases, such as rabies, cholera, West Nile virus, etc…Now, for the first time, researchers are examining a disease that humans are spreading to an animal, specifically Elkhorn coral off the Florida Keys. With support from the National Science Foundation, Rollins College biologist Kathryn Sutherland is tracing this emerging infectious disease phenomenon, known as “reverse zoonosis.” Elkhorn coral was once the most common coral in the Caribbean, but it’s now a threatened species due to population losses from White pox disease. Sutherland believes undertreated sewage, possibly from leaking septic tanks or illegal cruise ship discharge, could be the source of this disease.

A report from the Florida Keys, but relevant to the Caribbean. As Kathryn Sutherland said in an NPR interview last year:

“[T]his is a problem Caribbean-wide,” Sutherland says, “and there’s a widespread lack of wastewater treatment in the wider Caribbean region.”

Previously on Green Antilles: Researchers to study how humans transmit white pox disease to corals.