On Sunday, January 30, Minister of Land
and Environment, the Hon. Dean Peart will deliver his World Wetlands Day
Message at the Fellowship Tabernacle Church, in Kingston. The service, which
starts at 7:15 a.m., is one of two organized by the National Environment and
Planning Agency (NEPA), in honour of World Wetlands Day to be celebrated, on
Wednesday, February 2.
The service kicks off a week of activities
in observation of this major environmental calendar event under the theme -
"There is wealth in wetlands diversity - don't loose it" which focuses
attention on the crucial links between biological diversity and cultural
practices. Misuse of wetlands can result in major losses and damage to
biological and cultural diversity across the world. The Minister's message
will also be delivered at a 10:30 a.m. service in central Jamaica, at the
Mandeville branch of Fellowship Tabernacle, Ward Avenue.
Other activities include: weeklong
exhibitions in Kingston, in the libraries of the University of the West
Indies, Mona campus and the University of Technology, Jamaica. Exhibitions
will also be mounted in St. Elizabeth at Bethlehem Teachers' College and at
the Montego Bay Marine Park, Pier One in St. James.
Two World Wetlands Day tours have been
planned for staff and stakeholders of NEPA, the media, students from some
schools in Kingston and environmental professionals at the Palisadoes
Mangroves; while a similar contingent is scheduled to tour the Portland
Bight wetlands, in Clarendon. The tour in Kingston gets underway at 9:00
a.m. while the Clarendon tour starts at the Monymusk Gun Club an hour later.
Additionally, the Negril Area
Environmental Protection Trust will host an Open Day on World Wetlands Day
under the theme "Cultural and Biological Diversity of Wetlands", at the
Negril Royal Palm Reserve from 9:00 am up to 3:00 pin. Members of the public
are invited to come and support the initiative.
This year's celebrations are particularly
important as the Ramsar Convention is scheduled to host its ninth meeting of
the Conference of the Parties, in November. This year also marks the start
of the International Decade of Water, to be launched on World Water Day on
March 23, 2005.
Since 1997, Contracting Parties to the
Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention) have celebrated World Wetlands
Day (WWD) to commemorate the signing of the Convention in Ramsar, Iran, on
February 2, 1971. World Wetlands Day is aimed at raising public awareness of
wetlands; their value and benefits as well as the need for wiser management
of these ecosystems.
