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life has seen three more Parties ratifying it, namely Colombia, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, thus making a total of seven Parties to date to the SPAW Protocol.  Two more Parties are still needed to ratify before the Protocol enters into force.

The Programme was also influential in promoting and raising awareness throughout the region about the crtitical status of our coral reefs and the various approaches and initiatives available to support their conservation.  Through earmarked contributions from the Government of the United States of America, CEP supported the development of a network and database of marine protected areas, monitoring of coral reefs and their impacts, including the participation of volunteers in monitoring activities.

CEP gives the highest priority to strengthening the institutional and human resources of the countries of the region in the various fields of environmental management.  For this reason, a training and technical assistance component is present in most of the projects.

The completion of the AMEP project (formerly IPID/CEPPOL) on contaminated bays has allowed for diagnostic analysis of four additional bays in the region (Point Lisas, Trinidad and Tobago; Bluefields, Nicaragua; Bahia de Pozuelos, Venezuela; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic).  With the experiences from these studies and previous work in IPID and with UNDP, we are now able to compile Guidelines for   Diagnostic Studies to be completed later this year.

The AMEP Programme also included training in 1998 on environmentally sound technologies for sewage treatment in the Wider Caribbean Region.  This five-day workshop provided an excellent training opportunity for almost 60 regional engineers and pollution control experts.

The CEPNET/IDB project, now concluded, is a good example of strengthening institutional and human resources.  Each of the six pilot Network Programme countries (Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela) which participated in the Project have developed operational and self-sufficient clearinghouse nodes.  The clearinghouse nodes contain descriptions of the participating agencies in each country, environmental information and reports, metadata for the agencies' marine and coastal data, and the country's "State of the Coasts" Report.  Through this network of data providers and users, countries of the Wider Caribbean Region and worldwide can access environmental information and data, and share coastal zone management strategies.  Training was provided for each participating country.  CEP would now like to expand the network to the rest of the Caribbean.  To that end, we are working towards securing financial support from donors.

The joint UNEP and USAID Caribbean Environment Network (CEN) on promotion of environmentally sound tourism practices in the region for the protection of coastal ecosystems has also just been concluded.  Training manuals and courses were developed in English, Spanish and French, and other manuals generated as tools for the industry.  At the national level, a number of countries are trying to put into practice the experiences accumulated during their participation in the project.  As the tourism industry continues to grow, the Secretariat is hopeful that the outcomes and lessons learned from the CEN Project will continue to multiply throughout the region.

For more detailed information on the achievements of these projects, please see the CEP Programme Updates.

For more information, please contact: Nelson Andrade Colmenares, Co-ordinator, UNEP-CAR/RCU, 14-20 Port Royal Street, Kingston, Jamaica; E-mail: nac.uneprcuja@cwjamaica.com

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