Counterpart International’s team of environmental experts on coral reef restoration are optimistic about the possibilities for restoring the health of reef areas in Barbados and Jamaica through its award-winning Coral Gardens initiative, pioneered originally in the Pacific.
 
The team that visited the region last month included Counterpart’s Fiji-based Program Scientist Dr. Austin Bowden-Kerby, Vice President Raymond Chavez and Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of the late ocean pioneer, Jacques Cousteau.Last week, the Counterpart team was in the Dominican Republic, at the invitation of local government and the private sector, to assess the condition of the island’s coastal systems in Puerto Plata, Punta Cana and Santo Domingo. While in the Eastern Caribbean last month, they met with chairman of the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), Mr. Royston Hopkin in Grenada.Counterpart’s Fiji site, implemented by Partners for Community Development Fiji, was chosen in 2002 as a “model site for coral reef conservation” by the United Nations Environmental Programme’s ICRAN Program (The International Coral Reef Action Network).

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