The CARI’MAM project, for Caribbean Marine Mammals Preservation Network or "Caring for marine mammals", aims to strengthen a network of marine protected areas for marine mammals in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR).

A European Project

Costed at € 2,727,275, this project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the framework of the Interreg Caribbean program, up to 75%, ie € 2,045,456. It also includes an EDF fund allocated to the Ministry of the Environment of the Dominican Republic.

The CARI’MAM project is co-piloted by four structures, which benefit from this funding:

• the Regional Activity Center for the SPAW protocol (SPAW-RAC),
• the Réserve Naturelle nationale de Saint-Martin,
• Réserve Naturelle nationale de l’Île du Grand-Connétable en Guyane
• the Agoa sanctuary under the supervision of the French Biodiversity Office, its leader.

A network for marine mammals

The Caribbean shows great heterogeneity in the protection of marine mammals. While some territories strictly regulate the approach of cetaceans, or carry out conservation and monitoring projects through marine protected areas, others still practice traditional hunting...

Launched in 2018, the CARI’MAM project aims to:

• Create a network of actors involved in the conservation of marine mammals,
• Strengthen the skills of managers of marine protected areas,
• Develop common management and evaluation tools,
• Support the development of a commercial offer for the observation of marine mammals that respects animals and is sustainable, on a Caribbean scale.

To achieve these objectives, the structures involved share several areas of work:

Axis 1 - State of the art of legal knowledge and tools concerning marine mammals
Axis 2 - Acquisition of knowledge
Axis 3 -Strengthening the skills of managers
Axis 4 -Development of common strategies for acoustic monitoring of species
Axis 5 -Supporting the development of commercial naturalist activities for the observation of cetaceans, respectful of animals and sustainable
Axis 6 - Management plan for marine protected areas with a “marine mammal” responsibility
Axis 7 - Communication and awareness

In order to animate this network, international meetings are organized in order to allow the partners to present their structures and their projects, and to make them work collectively on common subjects through thematic workshops.

At present, the network brings together 61 structures, coming from 28 territories of the Caribbean.

Workshop reports

You will find below the reports of the workshops conducted in the framework of the CARI’MAM project