Training in Panama

CATHALAC, the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Panama, in association with various universities and organisations, offers educational programmes, including a Master's degree in Climate Change, a Capacity Development Programme for professionals, a Study Abroad Programme for undergraduates, a Research Abroad Programme and a Sabbaticals and Doctoral Research Programme. The July 2010 Study Abroad Programme will last eight weeks and focus on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. It will be conducted in English and the closing date is 8th Mar 2010. With CATHALAC being a hub for geospatial data and expertise, I imagine participants will be exposed to the latest in GIS technology.

MSc Scholarships in Geospatial Technologies

MSc Geospatial Technologies
Application deadline: Jan 15, 2010

Ten full scholarships for non-EU students are available under the Erasmus Mundus programme for an MSc in Geospatial Technologies, taught in English, at Münster University (Germany), University of King Jaume I (Spain) and the New University of Lisbon (Portugal).

Caribbean Youth Poster Competition

UN-SPIDER and the Space Generation Advisory Council in support of the UN Programme for Space Applications (SGAC), calls for candidates from Caribbean Region countries between the ages of 18–35 to submit a poster on the topic of "Case Study on the use of Space–based information for Disaster Management in the Caribbean". The lucky winner will be invited to the 4th Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management from the 7-11 of December, 2009 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Travel costs, daily subsistence allowance and cost of printing poster will be covered The deadline is 15 Nov 2009.

Eyes in the Sky

With the launch of WorldView-2, the newest high resolution sensor, today Oct 8, 2009, GIS practitioners now have several choices for commercial half-metre imagery. WorldView-2 will acquire 46cm (panchromatic) and 1.84m (multispectral) imagery. The GeoEye-1 sensor, launched on Sep 6, 2008, provides 41cm (panchromatic) and 1.65m (multispectral). And WorldView-1 launched on Sep 18, 2007 provides 50cm imagery. One can actually see/ interpret people on these half-metre images (not faces yet, that's just in Enemy of the State). There's also the "lower" resolution, and more affordable, 1-metre resolution QuickBird and IKONOS imagery suitable for a variety of tasks. Even though the newer sensors can technically provide 41/46cm resolution images, non-US Government orders are limited to 50cm resolution. For customers in the West Indies, the official agents for the satellite companies, GeoEye and DigitalGlobe, are located in Trinidad and Barbados, respectively.

How to find a Hurricane

Well, there are a few good sources including the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) with decent presentation, useful charts and downloadable GIS data, and the more colourful Weather Underground, but the best visualisation that I've seen recently must be the MSNBC, Bing-powered, Stamen-designed Hurricane Tracker.

Belize NSDI

Belize National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).
With thanks to Marion Cayetano, Galen University

As reported in the news and on the GSDI LAC and the GEOSS Caribe mailing lists, Belize's effort to build an NSDI aims to "foster national development by promoting national competitiveness and productivity". That unusual statement puts it well - an SDI isn't just an ideal, it's part of any modern country's infrastructure.

Belize has experience with GIS. Its first use of GIS and Remote Sensing was during the late eighties to monitor crop potential and harvesting of Sugar Cane. In the nineties it established a GIS-equipped Land Information Centre (LIC).

This 1st NSDI conference was very well attended. About 25 organizations from the public, private, academic and private sectors attended the conference which was held at the San Ignacio Hotel, San Ignacio Town on the 29th & 30th of July. The objective of the conference was to prepare the participants for the development of an implementation plan for the Belize National Spatial Data Infrastructure. The group now intends to complete a draft implementation plan by the end of Oct 2009 and to present it for discussion at the 2nd NSDI Conference already scheduled for the week of the 16th of Nov 2009.

A project implementation team made up of representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, Galen University, NASA, CATHALAC, the Pan American Institute of Geography and History, and Belize Environmental Resource Data System (BERDS) is responsible for compiling the draft plan. Four working groups have been established within this team, focusing on:

1. Data quality and data standards, including metadata creation,
2. Infrastructure design and implementation
3. Data ownership and accessibility
4. System maintenance and oversight

The draft plan will address the tangible and intangible components of the SDI ... including policies and procedures, data quality and data documentation standards, and portals and data access options. The ultimate objective is to get the NSDI off the ground and operational in the next 21 months. Good hunting Belize!

Caribbean Challenge endorsed by Caribbean Leaders

From Kate Brown
+++++++++++++

Dear colleagues

CARICOM at its recent conference in Guyana has endorsed the Caribbean Challenge within its declaration on climate change and development as outlined below. The Caribbean Challenge was launched at COP 9 of the CBD in 2008 in Bonn and has the following overall goal: Caribbean governments will protect at least 20 percent of their marine and coastal habitats by 2020.

The Thirtieth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was held at the Guyana International Convention Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, Guyana from 2-5 July 2009. The President of Guyana, His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo presided.

ILIENDAAL DECLARATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
We, the Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community, at our Thirtieth Meeting of the Conference in Liliendaal, Guyana from 2-5 July 2009, affirm our commitment to the principles and objectives of the Caribbean Community as embodied in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy -
1. Recalling the objective, principles and commitments of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol;

2. Gravely concerned that our efforts to promote sustainable development and to achieve the internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are under severe threat from the devastating effects of climate change and sea level rise which has led to increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, damage to bio diversity, coral bleaching, coastal erosion, changing precipitation patterns.

3. Emphasising that dangerous climate change is already occurring in all SIDS (Small Islands and Low-lying Coastal Developing States (SIDS) regions including the Caribbean and that many SIDS will cease to exist without urgent, ambitious and decisive action by the international community to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions significantly and to support SIDS in their efforts to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, including through the provision of increased levels of financial and technical resources.

4. Very concerned that the estimated total annual impact of potential climate change on all CARICOM countries is estimated at US$9.9 billion in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2007 US$ prices or about 11.3% of the total annual GDP of all 20 CARICOM countries (Member States and Associate Member States) according to the World Bank estimates;

We Affirm:
1. Our belief that the global response to climate change should be undertaken on the basis of common but differentiated as well as historical responsibility and that it should not compromise the ability of SIDS to pursue Sustainable Development and the sharing of the cost of addressing climate change should be equitable and should not perpetuate poverty.

2. Our continued commitment to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and call on all Parties to ensure that UNFCCC decisions are guided by that work;

3. Our Endorsement for the Caribbean Challenge in its efforts to protect the Region's Marine Resources and in its work towards fulfilling the UNFCCC ecosystem-based management and adaptation recommendations and implementing the Millennium Development Goals related to reducing biodiversity loss;

4. Support for the co-ordinating role of the CARICOM Task Force for Climate Change and Development established by the Conference of Heads of State and Government and the implementing role of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the roles of the CARICOM Secretariat, the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS) chaired by the Government of Grenada and the CARICOM Representatives in the international climate change negotiations; and

5. The importance of a common Regional approach to address the threats and challenges of climate change and of the full and effective participation of the Region in the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark (COP15), the UN Secretary-General's Climate Change Summit in September 2009 and their preparatory processes.

WE Declare:

1. That all Parties to the UNFCCC should work with an increased sense of urgency and purpose towards arriving at an ambitious and comprehensive agreement at the COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009 which provides for: long-term stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at levels which will ensure that global average surface temperature increases will be limited to well below 1.5° C of pre-industrial levels; that global greenhouse gas emissions should peak by 2015; global Co2 reductions of at least 45 percent by 2020 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 95 per cent of 1990 CO2 levels by 2050;

2. Adaptation and capacity building must be prioritised and a formal and well financed framework established within and outside of the Convention, including the multi-window insurance facility, to address the immediate and urgent, as well as long term, adaptation needs of vulnerable countries, particularly the SIDS and the LDCs;

3. The need for financial support to SIDS to enhance their capacities to respond to the challenges brought on by climate change and to access the technologies that will be required to undertake needed mitigation actions and to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change;

4. Our full support for the location of the Headquarters of the UNFCCC Adaptation Fund Board in Barbados;

5. Support for climate change negotiations to be fully cognisant of the requirement for improved land use management;

6. Our recognition of the value and potential of standing forest, including pristine rainforest, and our affirmation of its potential contribution to Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). Forest conservation or avoided deforestation and sustainable management of forests are important mitigation tools against climate change in a post 2012 Agreement. We also support the approach to harmonizing climate change mitigation and economic development as proposed by Guyana in its Low Carbon Development Strategy;

7. Strong determination to overcome technical, economic and policy barriers to facilitate the development, diffusion and deployment of appropriate and affordable low- and zero-emission technologies and renewable energy services; We also recognise the need for energy efficiency and conservation and the need for increased technical and financial support for the development of renewable energy in the Caribbean;

8. Our commitment to providing more effective preparedness for response to natural disasters through the development of better risk assessment and material coordination along with the streamlining of risk reduction initiatives. In pursing this task, we call on the Parties negotiating the new Climate Change Agreement to endorse the Alliance for Small Island Developing States (AOSIS) proposal on risk management and risk reduction strategies, including risk sharing and transfer mechanisms such as insurance;

9. Strong support for the streamlining of all climate change funding mechanisms including the Global Environment Facility to include the vulnerability index in their formulae in order to better facilitate SIDS' access to financial resources; and to explore mechanisms to support the Caribbean Community adaptation programmes;

10. Our commitment to ensuring that the Caribbean Community and its supporting institutions will play their full part in implementing our shared vision, goals and actions, working in strategic partnerships with others;

11. Our resolve to strengthen our educational institutions to provide training , education, research and development programmes in climate change and disaster risk management particularly in renewable and other forms of alternative energy, forestry, agriculture, tourism, health, coastal zone management and water resources management to increase the Region's capacity to build resilience and adapt to climate change; and

12. Our further resolve to institute a comprehensive programme of public awareness and education and hereby invite all, partners, organisations and stakeholders to play a full part in promoting a better understanding of climate change and its impacts and in addressing adaptation and mitigation.