White Sand Beach within the community of Rocky Point, Clarendon received a major boost to its coastline with the planting of 2,000 mangroves on Friday December 2, 2011. The initiative was a joint venture between the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (CCAM) and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) with the aim to build, restore and protect the mangrove coastline of Portland Bight which has suffered severe damage over the past fifteen years.  

Speaking on behalf of the ODPEM, Director General Mr. Ronald Jackson in welcoming the participants at the opening ceremony mentioned that this project was born out of the intervention and input of the community members of Rocky Point who recognized the importance of mangroves and the need to protect and preserve them. Other participants at the day’s event included schools from the parish, partner agencies, members of the media and community who all volunteered their time in the planting of mangroves and was treated to a live concert which featured performances from voices for climate change education.  

White Sand Beach, Rocky Point which forms part of  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.  

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.