Attached until today to the local committee of Guadeloupe and its action program, Saint-Martin has its own local IFRECOR committee, continuing its autonomy in the field of preserving ecosystems and biodiversity.
Coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves represent the richest and most productive ecosystems on the planet along with tropical forests. The main objective of the French Coral Reef Initiative (IFRECOR) is to promote locally, nationally and internationally the protection and sustainable management of coral reefs and associated ecosystems in overseas communities. To meet this objective, the national committee is implementing a 5-year program which is structured around action plans established by each local committee. This Wednesday, July 23, the first meeting of the local committee of Saint-Martin took place in order to install IFRECOR in the territory, to bring together the various local actors to preserve corals, mangroves and seagrass beds and to adopt a plan for actions which will be built in the second half of 2024. At the heart of this new committee, the State represented by the delegated prefect Vincent Berton and the DEAL, the Collectivity of Saint-Martin, the Nature Reserve and the Conservatoire du Littoral, the OFB, environmental protection associations, socio-professionals and sea users, without forgetting scientists specializing in the preservation of coral reefs including Amandine Vaslet, regional coordinator IFRECOR – French Antilles Récifs Network. Two major consecutive coral bleaching phenomena in 2023 and 2024 have impacted the state of health of coral reefs already degraded by 50% in 2020. A state of health and monitoring of the 8 coral stations (Creole Rock, Spanish Bass, Fish Pot , Chicot, Caye Verte, Galion, Pinel and Rocher Pélican) and 4 underwater herbarium stations are part, among others, of the action plan. The theoretical meeting turned into practice with a sea trip on one of Captain Jo's boats for a tour of the coral reefs around the Creole Rock. _Vx
Info: https://ifrecor.fr
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