A Subregional Workshop on Land and Water Resources Information Systems (LWRIS) in the Caribbean was held in Bridgetown, Barbados, 2 - 4 October 2000. The meeting was part of the first Annual Technical Meeting of the Caribbean Land and Water Resources Network (CLAWRENET). This meeting was held in collaboration with the Caribbean Agricultural and Research Development Institute (CARDI), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) and the Brace Centre for Water Resources Management of Mc Gill University. The purpose of the meeting was to launch the network and to promote the use of land and water resources information systems in the assessment, mapping and monitoring of land and water resources in the Caribbean. The workshop was attended by 38 participants, including 15 from Caribbean countries and seven resource persons from Costa Rica, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the United States of America. The resource persons contributed by sharing their experiences from their respective countries and organizations and assisted in the preparation of the plan of action to promote future reporting and exchange of information in the region. Each country reported on the progress in preparing its national report on the state of Land, Water and Plant nutrition resources, using the FAO guidelines. It was proposed that each country should be responsible for updating as and when new information becomes available. The Technical Officer in the Subregional Office will send annual reminders to the Regional Coordinator of the network, and the coordinator in turn will contact all countries at the end of each year to solicit any new information. It was suggested that CARDI through its PROCICARIBE Secretariat should serve as the coordinating unit with the various countries on LWRIS activities and that FAO should provide technical support, training and funding, where necessary and possible, to ensure the preparation of the reports.
These proceedings were compiled by Ms. Lystra Fletcher-Paul and Mr. Jacques Antoine and edited by Mr. Robert Brinkman. Thanks are offered to the persons who made valuable contributions to the workshop, particularly Misses Aurora Devers-Noguera and Kathleen Gittens of CARDI and Messrs. Mike Broten and Sachimine Masui.
AEZ |
Agro-ecological Zoning |
AGL |
Land and Water Development Division, FAO |
APT |
Agricultural Planning Tools |
ALES |
Automated Land Evaluation System |
BARC |
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council |
CARDI |
Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute |
CARICOM |
Caribbean Community |
CATIE |
Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center |
CDB |
Caribbean Development Bank |
CDE |
Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern |
CFRAMP CARICOM |
Fisheries Resource Assessment and Management Programme |
CLAWRENET |
Caribbean Land and Water Resources Network |
COAG |
Committee on Agriculture, FAO |
CPACC |
Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Global Climate Change |
CSIC |
Superior Council of Scientific Research, Spain |
CTA |
Agricultural Technical Centre (E.U.; Wageningen) |
DEM |
Digital Elevation Model |
DLD |
Department of Land Development, Min. Agric. and Cooperation, Thailand |
EU |
European Union |
FAO |
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |
GDP |
Gross Domestic Product |
GIS |
Geographic Information System |
ICLARM |
International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management, Philippines |
IIASA |
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna, Austria |
IICA |
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture |
IPGRI |
International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome |
ISNAR |
International Service for National Agricultural Research, The Hague |
ISRIC |
International Soil Reference and Information Centre, Wageningen |
LRI |
Land Resource Inventory |
LRIS |
Land Resource Information Systems |
LWRIS |
Land and Water Resources Information Systems |
MAFF |
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries |
MCDS |
Multi-Criteria Decision Support |
MCMA |
Multi-Criteria Model Analysis |
OECS |
Organization of Eastern Caribbean States |
OSS |
Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel |
PROCICARIBE |
Agricultural Science and Technology System of the Caribbean |
RELMA |
Regional Land Management Unit, Kenya |
SARD |
Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development |
SDBM |
Multilingual Soil Database Programme Suite |
SLAC |
FAO Subregional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean |
SNAP |
Soil Nutrition and Agricultural Productivity |
SOTER |
Soils and Terrain Database |
SWC |
Soil and Water Conservation |
TAC |
Technical Advisory Committee of the Consultation Group for International Agricultural Research |
UNDP |
United Nations Development Programme |
UNESCO |
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization |
UWI The |
University of the West Indies |
WAICENT |
World Agricultural Information Centre, FAO |
WOCAT |
World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies |