Source: best, 2005a

8. 
   Conclusions
   

• 
  Significantly assisting with sensitization of the public, policy makers, politicians and agencies to understand the need for biodiversity conservation;
  
• 
  Assisting with the development of policies, plans and strategies;
  
• 
  Creating a national focus for implementing agencies and resource managers to meet through the Biodiversity committee;
  
• 
  Being one of the main driving forces for the creation of the BEST Commission and the Ministry of the Environment; and
  
• 
  Providing avenues for The Bahamas to access international conservation funding.
  

• 
  The Bahamas has not defined national targets nor implemented global target indicators in policies and strategies. As a result, measuring progress was based on expert and practitioner information.
  

• 
  The overriding obstacle to full implementation of the Convention is a lack of personnel, both at the scientific and support staff levels. The current staff is qualified, but numbers are insufficient to deal with the myriad of issues related to the Convention and in addition to other environmental issues that must be addressed.
  
• 
  Despite the remarkable amount of research related to biodiversity in The Bahamas, the research was not of much value for reporting purposes to the Convention, since it was not presented in a consistent format and not related to the needs of the country as a whole. Much of the research takes place in relatively remote locations, such as the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, San Salvador, Bimini, Lee Stocking Island and the two field stations in North Andros. New Providence, which has the largest population, has no field station and a very limited research facility at the College of The Bahamas. Therefore, monitoring and reporting protocols should be implemented for research in The Bahamas and a biodiversity clearing house mechanism implemented.
  
• 
  Lack of framework for intra and inter-agency communication which hampers the sharing of information and expertise (e.g.an unreliable and inconsistent wide area network linking all sectors).
  
• 
  The majority of the Government agencies involved in the collection of biodiversity data do not have a proper database for storing and inputting the data for analysis. If the data exists, access to data is a problem.
  
• 
  Knowledge on biodiversity in The Bahamas is fragmented as available research material may deal with a specific area or individual islands and not the entire country.
  
• 
  Members of the National Biodiversity Subcommittee are usually externally funded to attend regional and international meetings, on biodiversity and biotechnology topics, yet on their return to the country they have little or no opportunity to apply or communicate what has been learnt, and there is little impact at the national level.
  
• 
  The archipelagic nature of The Bahamas, with ninety-five percent of the country territory being marine and indefensible boundaries, makes implementation of international agreements and enforcement of national legislation difficult.
  
• 
  The installation of networks and infrastructure to enhance biodiversity protection within the islands is a major challenge. Inter-island transportation and communication to remote islands is costly, and sometimes unreliable or non-existent for enforcement purposes.
  
• 
  There is a need for more scientific/technological and human resources to implement monitoring programs in terrestrial and marine protected areas.
  
• 
  GIS capability is limited among the protected areas managers and needs to be expanded.
  

Some of the future priorities and capacity building needs for further national-level implementation of the Convention are:

• 
  Development of a strategic plan to identify and map critical areas of biodiversity;
  
• 
  Development of a critical resources plan (outlining staff requirements, technical skills, equipment etc.);
  

• 
  Establish a legal foundation for the protection of the critical areas and biodiversity;
  
• 
  Updating of the NBSAP, inclusive of concise national goals and targets;
  
• 
  Establishment of ecological baselines and a long term monitoring system;
  
• 
  Development of a national biodiversity storage of genetic bank e.g. seed bank;
  
• 
  Addressing Biosafety issues such as GMOs and importation of goods;
  
• 
  Implementation of measures to conserve traditional knowledge;
  
• 
  Inclusion of Environmental accounting in the country’s national budget and GDP;
  
• 
  Increase the number of local researchers and ensure that the research is focused on national needs;
  
• 
  Requiring that the BDC and all government agencies responsible for the environmental programmes implement on-going public awareness programmes using the dedicated funding provided by the GOB;
  
• 
  Implementation of environmental fines and the funds utilized for the promotion of environmental conservation;
  
• 
  Conduct an economic evaluation of biodiversity activities to determine the worth of the ecosystems within the GDP;
  
• 
  Identifying mechanisms for sustainable financing for institutional strengthening and research; and
  
• 
  Development of a monitoring system that can be updated in real time.
  

• 
  Establish a coordinating agency for protecting the spawning aggregation across the Caribbean Region;
  
• 
  Finalize the Caribbean Challenge protected area initiative and establishment of the funding mechanism for protection and research for the designated areas;
  
• 
  Identify critical areas throughout the Caribbean to serve as focal points for protection and research (e.g. For The Bahamas the West Side of Andros is a critical marine nursery);
  
• 
  There needs to be an emphasis on stakeholder agencies accessing international funding to improve capacity;
  
• 
  Provide more funding for outreach and the education of member countries;
  
• 
  Establish more mechanisms for creating international partnerships;
  
• 
  Share knowledge of lessons learnt by member countries through newsletters;
  
• 
  Provide more direct oversight of international trade especially with resources that are most sensitive to drastic changes in numbers (particularly species that are slow to mature); and
  
• 
  CBD should continue to work with the additional environmental conventions to achieve global environmental challenges.
  

• 
  Establish mechanisms to provide carbon credits to countries that preserve large areas which assist with purifying the atmosphere;
  
• 
  Provide financial assistance to SIDS countries for mitigation of environmental impacts such as Climate Change;
  
• 
  Provide assistance to SIDS countries for putting mechanisms in place concerning the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arises out the utilization of genetic resources and assists with training of local persons so they can identify these resources. Also provide educational material that can be used within countries;
  
• 
  Educate and dialogue at the Head of State level on the importance of biodiversity to human well-being and implementation of CBD, so programs can be supported at the national level and appropriate budgetary allocations made to agencies involved with implementation of the Convention;
  
• 
  Assist member countries in finding mechanisms to raise funds for conservation methods and
  
• 
  Enhance technical cooperation by enabling the transfer of knowledge to improve national technical capacity.
  

Anderson, K.W. (1994) On The Status of Bats on Andros and San Salvador Island, Bahamas. In Lee B. Kass (Ed., Proceedings of the 5^th Symposium on the Natural History of The Bahamas. Bahamian Field Station, San Salvador, Bahamas: 1-4.

Claridge, D.E. (2006). Fine-scale distribution and habitat selection of beaked whales. Thesis presented for Master’s of Science in Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. 119 pp.

Claridge, Diane. (1994). Photo – Identification Study to Assess the Population Size of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins in Central Abaco. Bahamas Journal of Science. Accessed 14 Oct., 2010

http://www.bahamaswhales.org/resources/Claridge_Bah_J_Sci_1994.pdf
Cock, Matthew J.W. (1998). Two Species of Hesperiidae Recently Established On New Providence.

Bahamas Journal of Science: Vol.5 No.3: 16-21.

Pinder, S. (1996). Pollution and Waste Disposal Effluents in Bahamian Groundwater Resources. Germany: Dresden University of Technology.

Thurlow, K. E. and M. Palmer. (2007). The Bahamas Ecological Gap Analysis. The Nature Conservancy, Northern Caribbean Program. Nassau, Bahamas.

1. 
   Reporting Party
   

2. 
   Process of preparation of national report
   

1. 
   Surveys - an Institutional and Dataset Survey adapted from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre Handbook on Biodiversity Information Management. These surveys were used to determine the needs of the agencies and to determine datasets that may be available for assessing status and trends of biodiversity in the country. It was found that most of the government agencies did not have datasets on biodiversity and if they did the data was not very reliable and easily accessible.
   
2. 
   Stakeholder Workshop – stakeholder representation was provided by NGOs, research institutes and government agencies. See attached participants list
   
3. 
   One on one interviews – telephone or in person interviews were conducted with the key stakeholders.
   
4. 
   National Biological Diversity Committee – a one day meeting was held with the BDC to review and finalize the report.
   
5. 
   Review of existing legislation, policies, regulations, available literature, and websites (NGO’s, government agencies, international organizations etc).
   

The following obstacles were encountered during the preparation of the report:

• 
  Research information was not housed at a central location, but is scattered throughout the archipelago at the various private research institutions or is with foreign researchers;
  
• 
  The Biodiversity Subcommittee comprises representatives of government and non-governmental agencies, some not necessarily involved with biodiversity conservation as part of their substantive duties; the duties attached to their substantive posts must take first preference on their time;
  
• 
  The timeframe for the production of the report was ten weeks, limiting the review period of the document to one week by the various stakeholders.
  

A. Progress towards Targets of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation

B. Progress towards Targets of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas