Our missions

The SPAW-RAC is a regional body designated by the Contracting Parties to the Cartagena Convention to coordinate or carry out specific technical functions and activities in support of the SPAW Protocol. The statutory missions of the CAR-SPAW are as follows :

• Identify, collect, inventory and transmit to Caribbean actors relevant scientific and technical information, as well as useful experiences;
• Collect data on top technologies and expertise on wildlife and protected areas’ management in the Caribbean and transfer the information to the same actors ;
• Develop training activities ;
• Provide scientific and technical support to the Parties of the SPAW ;
• Cooperate with UN’s agencies, with intergovernmental, governmental or non-governmental qualified organizations and more broadly with all concerned actors to develop common projects or to deploy SPAW linked activities ;
• Animate discussions between Caribbean actors on a regular basis ;
• Contribute to the development of regional cooperation around the objectives of SPAW ;
• Encourage the harmonization of approaches and methods used on a regional level.

The RAC has an operating budget given by the French ministry for the environment, and a budget for developing and supporting actions granted by the French State, a SPAW trust fund and other sources of funding it identifies. Since 2018, the SPAW-RAC is integrated to DEAL of Guadeloupe (Environment, Urbanism and Housing Direction), the French ministry for the environment representative in the French oversea territory.

Themes Working group

SPAW-RAC chairs ad hoc working groups composed of scientific and technical experts designated by the Contracting Parties and observer organizations to the SPAW Protocol, which facilitate ongoing discussions on topics of interest to STAC SPAW (Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee). In response to requests from the STAC, their work may result in the provision of information or recommendations to the STAC.

SPAW-RAC currently chairs the following working groups:

Species
The Working Group on the inscription of species in the Annexes was established during COP 1 (Cuba, 2001). This group has namely developped the criteria for the inscription of species in the Annexes of the Protocol. SPAW Parties approved the revised criteria and the procedure for the presentation and validation of propositions for the inclusion or suppression of species in the Protocol Annexes I, II and III.
The Species Working Group reviews, evaluates, and provides recommendations on proposals from Contracting Parties to add new species to the appendices of the SPAW Protocol or to change the listing status of species currently listed in the appendices.

Spaces
The Working Group in charge of making the guidelines and criteria to evaluate Protected Areas under SPAW Protocol was also established during COP 1 (Cuba, 2001). Its first task, for instance, was to elaborate a repository for the evaluation of SPAW’s Protected Areas.
The Working Group on Protected Areas reviews and provides the basis for recommendations on proposals from Contracting Parties to add new protected areas to the appendices of the SPAW Protocol.

Exemptions
The Working Group in charge of developing the criteria and the evaluation process for exemptions was established during COP 6 (Jamaica, 2010). In its article 11 (2), the SPAW Protocol authorizes Contracting Parties to adopt exemptions to the prescribed prohibitions for the protection and the conservation of species that are listed in the Annexes I and II ‘for scientific, educative or management ends necessary to ensuring the survival of species or to prevent damage to forests, cultures and ecosystems, so long as they do not jeopardize the species”.
The criteria for and exemption evaluation process were approved in 2014. The Working Group has also made a template for exemption demand’s reporting so as to ease the Parties’ exemption proposal submiting procedure.
The working group on exemptions shall examine reports on derogations submitted by Contracting Parties.

Sargassum
The Working Group on sargassum influx was established during COP 10 (Honduras, 2019). It is in charge og feeding current discussions aiming to reinforce the necessary regional cooperation dynamic to value, collect, prevent and observe sargassum influxes in the Caribbean. Being a subject that enters both into SPAW Protoco and Land-Based Sources of Pollution (LBS Protocol), this Working Group is also charged of reinforcing synergies between these two protocols.