Guadeloupe National Park forms a set of protected territories of high ecological and community value. The park is today destined to have conservation and community impact based on a shared vision, administered with greater stakeholder engagement in its priorities and missions. After a public inquiry, the National Park has expanded its sphere of influence. The central area that concerned only one part of the forest of Basse-Terre today is the “core” of the Park which also includes in its territory the former Reserve “Grand Cul-de-Sac marin”, islands of Kahouanne and the “tête à l’anglais” as well as the marine part of the Pigeon Islands.
Guadeloupe National Park forms a set of protected territories of high ecological and community value. The park is today destined to have conservation and community impact based on a shared vision, administered with greater stakeholder engagement in its priorities and missions. After a public inquiry, the National Park has expanded its sphere of influence. The central area that concerned only one part of the forest of Basse-Terre today is the “core” of the Park which also includes in its territory the former Reserve “Grand Cul-de-Sac marin”, islands of Kahouanne and the “tête à l’anglais” as well as the marine part of the Pigeon Islands.
Major Site Values & Outcomes
The Guadeloupe National Park is one of the most diverse French protected areas. The national park is representative of many natural environments in the Caribbean: terrestrial (rainforest and high-altitude thickets, dry forests, deep-sea karstic environments, wetlands and rivers, coastal formations) and marine (coral reefs, mangroves, herbaria of phanerogams). In the rainforest, the species of flora are particularly rich with 811 flowering plants, 274 ferns, 84 species of orchids. About 3000 species of insects have been described; and, in the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin, 50 species of corals have been recorded.
The territory is also rich with Native American cultural heritage as well as a colonial history which remains today the base of Guadeloupean Creole culture.
The direct positive effects on biodiversity are numerous: preservation of ecological corridors ; control of invasive species (lionfish); conservation of threatened and rare terrestrial and marine species (including sea turtles, the Lesser Antilles iguana, the yellow-footed thrush, waders, and cetaceans); monitoring of coral bleaching; project for the reintroduction of an emblematic species, the manatee.
EAGL statement:
The environmental assessment report states that governance is the theme most concerned with the benefits of the charter. The majority of the objectives, orientations and axes are concerned by an improvement of the governance. The development of public consultation, through the encouragement of Agenda 21, is very favorable to the emergence of new modes of governance. Communication and awareness-raising actions also contribute to this “good” governance. Strengthening partnerships and shared governance, which is reflected in the way the park’s board of directors operates, but also in the joint implementation of measures, awareness and community training. The three zones of the national park whose boundaries each correspond to a level of protection adapted to the values identified in the diagnosis: the core zone, where maximum protection of the natural heritage is implemented, with strict supervision of human activities; and the peripheral zone (potential area of adhesion and adjacent marine area) where voluntary communes engage in a policy of sustainable development, in support of the protection of the heart of the national park.
At the end of the examination of the candidature of the Guadeloupe National Park, the members of the EAGL have welcomed the remarkable efforts carried out by the team of managers for the conservation of the values of the site and underlined the quality and completeness of the file. The standards are reached or exceeded. On the basis of these elements, the members of the working group unanimously voted in favour of re-registering the Guadeloupe National Park on the IUCN Green List.
Reviewer Summary:
Physical presence at the meeting of 14/09/2018.
Verification of the report of site visit
