CARICOMP

CARICOMP
Name	CARICOMP
Caption	Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Programme monitoring sites
Formation	1990
Type	Scientific network
Headquarters	Kingston, Jamaica
Location	Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico
Leader title	Coordinating body
Leader name	University of the West Indies
Parent organization	United Nations Environment Programme

CARICOMP

The Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Programme was a regional scientific network for standardized monitoring of coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrasses across the Caribbean Basin. It linked academic institutions, regional agencies, and environmental organizations to produce coordinated datasets that informed management by bodies such as the United Nations Environment Programme, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and regional initiatives under the Organization of American States. The programme fostered collaboration among universities, research institutes, and ministries, enabling comparative studies spanning the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Belize, Honduras, Panama, and other territories.

Overview

CARICOMP operated as a collaborative network for long-term ecological monitoring, aligning methods used by partners like the Smithsonian Institution, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of Miami. The network emphasized standardized transect and quadrat protocols to allow cross-site comparisons that supported assessments by organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Global Environment Facility. Through coordinated fieldwork and data sharing, CARICOMP contributed to regional capacity building involving the University of the West Indies, the University of Puerto Rico, and national fisheries departments.

History and Organization

Founded in 1990 with facilitation by entities including the United Nations Environment Programme and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, CARICOMP grew from workshops that convened representatives from institutions such as the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the Center for Marine Studies (Curaçao), and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The programme established a coordination office linked to the University of the West Indies and created a steering committee composed of scientists from the Bahamas National Trust, the Belize Fisheries Department, and research units at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Funding and technical support came from donors like the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank, and bilateral agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development.

Objectives and Methodology

CARICOMP aimed to detect regional trends in coastal ecosystem structure and productivity to inform policy decisions by bodies including the Caribbean Community and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Objectives included quantifying long-term changes in coral cover, seagrass biomass, and mangrove leaf production using harmonized methods developed alongside teams from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the European Union-funded marine programs. Standardized methods incorporated permanent transects, photogrammetry used by the British Geological Survey, and seagrass shoot and biomass protocols similar to those employed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Data management relied on protocols compatible with databases maintained by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Study Sites and Participating Countries

Monitoring sites spanned a wide geographic range, including reef and mangrove locations in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cayman Brac, Belize Barrier Reef, Honduras Bay Islands, Roatán, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama Bay, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Saint Lucia. Participating institutions included national agencies and universities such as the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), the Universidad de Panamá, the University of the West Indies Mona Campus, the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus, and research centers affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Key Findings and Publications

CARICOMP datasets underpinned regional syntheses showing declines in live coral cover, shifts in seagrass species composition, and variable mangrove productivity linked to sea-level trends and anthropogenic pressures. Major publications cited collaborators from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the University of Puerto Rico, the Universidad de Costa Rica, the International Coral Reef Society, and the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. Reports produced for the United Nations Environment Programme and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change used CARICOMP evidence in assessments of Caribbean reef resilience, coastal vulnerability studies by the World Bank, and conservation planning guided by the Nature Conservancy. Peer-reviewed articles highlighted relationships between thermal stress events recorded by the NOAA Coral Reef Watch program and observed coral bleaching across CARICOMP sites.

Impact and Legacy

CARICOMP left a legacy of standardized, comparable long-term ecological data that informed regional conservation strategies adopted by bodies such as the Caribbean Community and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Its capacity-building work influenced curricula at the University of the West Indies and research priorities at institutions like the Smithsonian Institution. Data and methodological frameworks from CARICOMP have been incorporated into subsequent networks and initiatives led by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the Caribbean Marine Protected Area Managers (CaMPAM), and the World Resources Institute. The programme’s collaborative model has been cited in evaluations by the Global Environment Facility and replicated in regional monitoring efforts across the Western Atlantic and beyond.

Category:Environmental organizations Category:Marine conservation