News from Jamaica (02/11/04)

Good morning everyone:

A great initiative from Jamaica to celebrate their wetlands:

In celebration of World Environment Day this year, the Government of Jamaica, with the assistance of the National Environment & Planning Agency (NEPA, the Ramsar Administrative Authority), launched a series of stamps to celebrate the beauty and diversity of Jamaica's coastal wetlands. Two of the stamps featured Parottee and Salt Spring Ponds, both wetlands that are part of the Black River Lower Morasss, a 5,700-hectare Ramsar site made up of both inland freshwater and mangrove ecosystems. You can see the stamps here.

The stamps also featured several marine species that occur in Jamiaca's coastal waters including the Hawksbill turtle, Tube sponge, Vase sponge and Star coral, Sea fan and White crinoid, Glassy sweeper and Giant sea anemone. The NEPA has, among its many functions, to "promote public awareness of the ecological systems of Jamaica and their importance to the social and economic life of the island" and these stamps certainly provide a great opportunity to raise awareness of the need to concerve Jamaica's natural resources and protected areas.

My thanks to Marsha Mason from NEPA for providing the Secretariat with stamps and the Postal News sheet released with the first day cover.

Best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

*****************************************************************

Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0176; Fax: +41 22 999 0169
E-mail: hails@ramsar.org
Web Site: http://ramsar.org
CEPA mini-Web site: http://ramsar.org/outreach_index.htm

*************************************************************