New Regional Environmental Platform Aims to Strengthen Information Management in the Wider Caribbean

By UNEP Cartagena Convention Secretariat - The UNEP Cartagena Convention Secretariat, through co-financing from the GEF CReW+ project and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, has been supporting the development of a regional environmental database platform for the Wider Caribbean. The platform will support data and information management on marine pollution and marine biodiversity which will also benefit GEF CReW+ countries. Why is this platform so important? As data and information management can be challenging for countries, this platform aims to identify data gaps and make data more accessible for national and regional decision-making. Governments will also be able to improve their reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals, of which UNEP is the custodian for 26 indicators spanning 6 Goals, including Goals 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 14 (Life Below Water) and 15 (Life on Land) that are directly linked to GEF CReW+. This regional platform will compile information from national monitoring and assessment programmes, strengthen science-policy linkages, support regional reporting on international agreements, and the monitoring of the Secretariat’s Regional Nutrient Pollution Reduction Strategy and Action Plan, and Regional Strategy and Action Plan for the Valuation, Protection and/or Restoration of Key Marine Habitats in the Wider Caribbean 2021 – 2030. This effort is also expected to build on the Secretariat’s landmark reports on the State of the Convention Area (SOCAR) focusing on marine pollution data, and the State of Nearshore Marine Habitats, which were launched in 2020. The pilot platform is being developed by the University of Geneva through the UNEP Science Division’s Global Resource Information Database (GRID) network in Geneva. It is already in its final stages of creation and will be integrated into UNEP’s data, information and knowledge hub on environment known as the World Environment Situation Room.