[Coral-List] DCNA website launch

[Kalli De Meyer]

New website launched by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance


 

A new website recently released by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance aims
to become the premier internet resource for both professionals and the
general public on issues of biodiversity and conservation within the Dutch
Caribbean.

 

In a ground breaking, grass roots initiative the Dutch Caribbean Nature
Alliance (DCNA) was launched in February 2004 to support and promote the
conservation and sustainable management of region’s terrestrial and marine
protected areas and their management organisations on the islands of Aruba,
Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten.

 

The website already features:

 

* Information on protected areas, habitats, ecosystems and endemic,
endangered and vulnerable species including an IUCN Red List for the Dutch
Caribbean.

* Details of on going projects on conservation, management and capacity
building

* Background information on the organisation its Board, vision and
objectives 

 

One particular element of the site has created interest from the outset. A
sea turtle tracking programme – part of a five island outreach project
modelled on the RARE Pride Programme aimed at educating locals and visitors
on St Maarten, Saba, St Eustatia and Bonaire about the importance of turtle
conservation – has started to yield fascinating results. 

 

A female green turtle was fitted with satellite-tracked radio transmitter at
a nesting site on St Eustatius in September. She has since been tracked
swimming almost 1000 kilometres without travelling further than 5kms from
the beach where the transmitter was originally attached to her shell. Her
travel pattern has raised interesting questions about the true geographical
range of her species that the DCNA project, managed by leading turtle
researcher Dr Robert van Dam, hopes to explore further by tracking more
turtles this year. 

 

DCNA Executive Director, Kalli De Meyer, says: ‘We are doing some cutting
edge work in scientific research and conservation and we want to use the
website to share it with both people and organisations working in our field
and the wider general public.’

 

Coming soon on the website are the results of a year long baseline study of
the protected areas as well as a fully searchable species database for the
six islands. ‘These are tools which are not only phenomenally useful for our
own park personnel and academics but they go a long way towards showing our
funders and donors how effective our techniques are and how productively
their money is being used to promote biodiversity conservation’.

 

‘We aim to make the results of our work available in their entirety on our
website as a part of our policy to provide a source of high quality
information to everyone who is interested.’

 

You can find the site at www.DCNAnature.org. Further information is
available from Kalli De Meyer on + 599 717 5010 or kdm at telbonet.an