This 13th staging of the course will be held at the University of West Indies, Cave Hill Campus from April 16 to 26, 2018, with the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) as the local organizing partner for this year’s course.

Twenty participants from 13 Caribbean countries in the region will attend the training and, on this occasion, the course will pay special attention to the application of the ecosystem approach to management, addressed through lectures, interactive exercises and field trips.

The participants will be engaged on a series of topic areas designed to enhance their professional knowledge including, the biophysical characteristics and interaction of the Caribbean coastal habitats (coral reefs, seagrass beds, rocky shores, sandy beaches, mangrove lagoons) at cross shelf and regional levels, their ecological services, and local and global threats to their resilience; ecological and socio-economic research and monitoring and its application to improve marine area management; marine spatial planning, participatory Geographic Information System (GIS), and ecosystem-based decision support systems; stakeholder engagement in MPA governance at site and national system levels; communication tools for MPA managers; and sustainable financing and business planning.

This training programme started in 1999 and has been part of the activities of the to build MPA capacities of the Contracting Parties to the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) to the Cartagena Convention and of other Caribbean countries. The Training of Trainers has been supported by the Caribbean Environment Programme of the UN Environment from its inception.

Link: BIOPAMA’s participation in the 2015 edition of this Training of Trainers.