Current Media Releases
Mason River Protected Area declared 4th Ramsar
Site

The Mason River Protected Area (MRPA)
in Clarendon has been designated as Jamaica’s 4th Wetland of
International Importance (also known as a Ramsar Site) under the Ramsar
Convention on Wetlands.
The designation certificates were presented to Hon. Dr. Horace Chang,
Minister of Housing, Environment, Water and Local Government and Mr.
Peter Knight, CEO of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA)
at the Fifth Pan-American Regional Meeting of the Convention on Wetlands
held recently at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, December 6-10, 2011.
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NRCA/NEPA responds to concerns over illegal export
of endemic parrots

The Natural Resources Conservation
Authority and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NRCA/NEPA)
have taken note of the concerns generated by an earlier release which
stated that steps were being taken to repatriate endemic Jamaican
Yellow-billed and Black-billed parrots which were reported to have been
hatched by an Austrian Zoo subsequent to the interception of eggs by
Austrian authorities at its border.
The Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an
international treaty governing the import, export, re-export of species
covered by the Convention. CITES outlines, under Article VIII paragraph
1 and 4, the measures to be taken respectively by a state that has
confiscated species being transported illegally through or into that
state, and the state from which they originate.
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NEPA and UNDP partner to launch State of the
Environment and Human Development Reports

The National Environment and
Planning Agency (NEPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
have partnered to present the launch of Jamaica’s State of the
Environment (SoE) Report (2010) and the national launch of the UNDP
Human Development Report (HDR) (2011). Both Reports will be launched on
December 16, 2011 at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.
Dr. the Hon. Horace Chang, Minister of Housing, Environment, Water and
Local Government, will give the main address, while presentations will
be made on key highlights for both reports.
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