would be desirable to develop a Protocol on Specially Protected 

 Areas and Wildlife in the Wider Caribbean Region. They also 

 agreed that it would be desirable to develop a Protocol on 

 land-based sources of pollution. In addition, the U.S. 

 delegation noted the need to increase awareness of the problem 

 of ship-generated marine debris and the need to amend the 

 existing Protocol on oil spill emergencies to include other 

 hazardous substances. 



The United States offered to host a meeting of experts 

 in the U.S. Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico in 1988 to prepare 

 a draft Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife 

 for consideration at the second meeting of Contracting Parties 

 to be held in Mexico City in 1989. The Contracting Parties 

 accepted the U.S. invitation and a meeting of experts was 

 held in St. Croix on 24-26 October 1988. To facilitate prepara- 

 tions for the meeting, the Department of State, in consultation 

 with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection 

 Agency, the Marine Mammal Commission, and other interested 

 Federal agencies, prepared and, in May 1988, provided a draft 

 Protocol to the Executive Director of the United Nations 

 Environment Program. The draft Protocol provided by the 

 United States was used, in part, to prepare a draft negotiating 

 text which was distributed by the United Nations Environment 

 Program in September 1988. 



The Marine Mammal Commission, in consultation with its 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors, reviewed the draft Protocol 

 prepared by the United Nations Environment Program and, by 

 letter of 30 September 1988, provided comments to the Department 

 of State. In its comments, the Commission noted that, as 

 drafted by the United Nations Environment Program, the Protocol 

 would: (1) defer establishment of procedures for identifying 

 and designating areas and species meriting special protection 

 until the first meeting of Parties (following adoption of the 

 Protocol) rather than specifying the procedures in the Protocol 

 itself; (2) focus narrowly on the identification and protection 

 of rare and fragile ecosystems and rare, threatened, and 

 endangered species rather than on the broad range of marine 

 and associated ecosystems and key ecosystem components that 

 make up the wider Caribbean region; and (3) provide that 

 funding would be channeled through the Caribbean Action Plan, 

 rather than independently, so that Contracting Parties apparent- 

 ly would be unable to insure that contributed funds were used 

 exclusively for specified Protocol-related purposes. The 

 Commission suggested that, in developing the U.S. position 

 for the negotiating session to be held in St. Croix on 24-26 

 October, the Department of State consider the desirability of 

 seeking: (1) revision of the general objective of the Protocol 

 to provide for protecting more than rare and fragile ecosystems 



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