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NEWS RELEASE
Darwin Plus funding secured for new international partnership project in the Turks and Caicos Islands
An international partnership led by JNCC has recently been awarded Darwin Plus funding to undertake a 3-year project in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). JNCC, the TCI Government Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR), and the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI) will be working together to improve the evidence base in the marine and coastal environments in order to support sustainable coastal and marine management approaches in the islands.
Technical assistance will be a key theme of the project; the JNCC’s scientific experts will be working with DECR technical leads to progress expertise in the use of information management, and to develop understanding around natural capital, environmental indicators and status assessments, as well as management approaches in coastal and marine environments. Stakeholder engagement and communicating the outputs of the project will also be central to the project; partners will work with local communities, science professionals and decision-makers to provide in-depth support and build capacity. In addition, new mapping tools are to be developed, and through maximizing the use of, and value of, existing data, these tools will support decision making and the implementation of a new TCI Government Environment Strategy.
The JNCC have been working with the UK Overseas Territories for over 20 years, providing technical assistance to support their biodiversity and wider environment management strategies. Specifically, in the TCI, they have developed a focused programme of work over the past few years and have been working with the TCI Government on a range of projects, including disaster resilience and natural capital accounting.
This project will form part of a programme of coastal/marine Darwin Plus projects in the islands and will complement marine spatial planning work already underway which is being led by SAERI. There will also be strong links with other natural capital work underway across the Caribbean region.
The project started on 1 August 2020. Further information and updates will be available in due course.
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