• to increase understanding and consensus on what is known about the predicted climate change trends and their impact on biodiversity in the islands of the Caribbean
• to identify gaps in regional knowledge and develop a research agenda to address these gaps and to identify the capacities that need to be developed to implement the agenda.

The first stage of the project has been a desk review of the current state of knowledge on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in the region and the related research capacities. Working groups were established for this purpose and the following draft reports have been prepared:

1. Climate change models and scenarios for the islands of the Caribbean
2. Climate change impacts on marine and coastal biodiversity in the islands of the Caribbean
3. Climate change impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the islands of the Caribbean.

We are now making these reports available for stakeholder to review and comment on if they so wish. The reports will be finalised at meetings of the Steering Committee in September so we would be grateful if you could provide feedback by 27 August 2008 to Hema Seeramsingh at hema@canari.org on any errors of fact or substantive omissions regarding research currently underway that you identify.

If you know of anyone else who would be interested or can assist in the review of the attached working group documents, please direct them to the website http://www.canari.org/macarthurclimatechange.html .

All of the responses that we receive will be noted and synthesised into a document that will be reviewed by the Steering Committee and a final regional project meeting in September and subsequently incorporated into the final versions of the Working Group reports which will be disseminated in November. The findings of all the Working Groups will also be summarised in a shorter document, which we intend to translate into Spanish and French.

For further information or queries, please contact Sarah McIntosh at sarah@canari.org.
 

For Questions or comments, on the information presented, please contact Leslie Walling or Sarah McIntosh