> Mabel Sanabria wrote:
>
> Blue Flag to be Adapted to Caribbean Beaches
>
> Recently, the Blue Flag Caribbean Feasibility Workshop, an
> environmental joint effort between four international organizations
> and over fourteen countries, was held in Puerto Rico with promising
> results. The most important breakthrough the representatives made was
> agreeing on the need to implement an environmental program for beaches
> in the Caribbean. Among other resolutions of the two-day meetings,
> the delegates accepted the idea of adopting the European Blue Flag
> Program to the Caribbean Region, and committed to return to their
> respective countries and determine what standards should be set for
> recognition within the Caribbean. By March 2000, they expect to
> choose beaches in the Caribbean to use as pilots for the Program.
>
> The Workshop was called by the United Nations Environment Program
> (UNEP IE), the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the Foundation for
> Environmental Education in Europe (FEEE), and the Caribbean Alliance
> for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), a subsidiary of the Caribbean Hotel
> Association. The purpose was to discuss the feasibility of the Blue
> Flag environmental beach quality program in beaches of the Caribbean,
> in response to the increasing threat of poor quality of water. The
> group was composed of representatives from many organizations and
> countries, including Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, St.
> Kitts, Barbados, Martinique, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Dominica, Trinidad
> and Tobago, United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Denmark.
>
> One of the challenges the Blue Flag program will have is to gain
> consensus around the Caribbean for the water quality standards to be
> established in the Region. However, the members stated they looked
> forward to be able to identify Caribbean beaches as environmentally
> clean and healthy in a near future. The Blue Flag Program currently
> recognizes 1,500 beaches throughout Europe and is widely recognized by
> European authorities and travelers as a distinguishing mark for
> quality beaches.
>
> In her opening remarks to the Workshop delegates, Kelly Robinson,
> Director of CAST, noted the absence of the cruise industry among the
> audience, in light of the importance of clean waters and beaches to
> this area of tourism. "One of the major cruise lines which operates
> throughout the Caribbean was charged for the third time for
> discharging waste water effluents directly into the ocean. The US
> Coast Guard discovered the violation to the international water acts,
> and the cruise line was fined $18 million dollars. Although the fine
> is the largest environmental levy ever weighed against a company, the
> same cruise line was prosecuted only months later for a repeated
> violation", stated Robinson to the audience.
>
> For more info, contact:
> Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism
> Caribbean Hotel Association
> 1000 Ponce de Leon 5th Floor
> San Juan, Puerto Rico
> Tel: 787-725-9139
> Fax: 787-725-9166
> Email: cast@chahotels.com
> or visit:
> Website: www.cha-cast.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 28 2000 - 15:35:32 AST