WHO: The Office of Disaster Preparedness  Emergency Management (ODPEM) in collaboration with the   Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation

WHAT: Opening Ceremony for the Mangrove Planting and Free Concert

WHERE: Rocky Point Beach, Clarendon

WHEN: Friday, December 2, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. Additional InformationThe activities for the Day will feature performances from voices for climate change education artistes, exhibits from several partner agencies, mangrove planting and a school tree planting competition.

The mangrove coastline of Portland Bight suffered severe damage from hurricanes Dean and Ivan, compounded by harvesting of mangroves for animal feed, sticks, lumber and charcoal. As a result this has reduced their capacity to store carbon, protect the shoreline, serve as fish nurseries and support biodiversity. The replanting of mangroves will help to fix these adverse affects in an effort to build and protect the coastline. Rocky Point has been identified as one of the areas that were severely damaged. The planting of mangroves is one of several initiatives that have been implemented under the Building Disaster Resilient Communities (BDRC) project through the ODPEM.

This project with the support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and a number of partner agencies have taken definitive measures to empower and educate 28 communities over the last 3 years in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Through the BDRC project the 28 communities have developed Community Disaster Management Plans and have established more than 32 Community Emergency Response Teams who have been trained in several areas of DRR. Your coverage of this event is most anticipated.