CoCo focuses efforts on 3 environmental concerns

Hello again! It’s been a while since you’ve seen me, but believe me, I’ve been working hard! So for all of my adoring public that has been waiting to hear what CoCo (CNMI Organization for Conservation Outreach) is planning to do with all of the wonderful information that was gathered during the public meeting in January, wait no longer!

As you may recall, in January you, the public, identified your top three environmental concerns. To refresh your memory, they were 1) Litter and illegal dumping, 2) Sewage outfall and management, and 3) Invasive species. You also offered us some great suggestions on how to tackle these issues. CoCo, your friendly interagency governmental education and outreach group, met recently to discuss these suggestions and others, and here is our response! (Drum roll please…)

CoCo will tackle one concern at a time, starting with litter and illegal dumping. Our first step will be to develop a position paper, outlining the various issues, what the government has already done about the problem, and what next steps we recommend. The position paper will also include examples of legislation about the topic, from both the CNMI and other states or territories. Once the position paper has been drafted, we will hold a meeting to inform the public, with an invited guest speaker to address the topic.

After informing themselves and the public, CoCo members will then begin the tough work of creating outreach related to the topic. After all, that’s what we’re all about: education and outreach. The outreach may be to the Legislature, to let them know about possible laws they might want to pass, or to the public to inform them about actions they can take to improve the problem. The great thing about CoCo is that because it involves representatives from a number of different agencies, we can pool our resources and all work together. We’re hoping to come up with a combined message, so that you can hear one strong voice in favor of our environment.

So, thanks once again to everyone who participated, and look forward to hearing from us soon on the issue of litter and illegal dumping!

CoCo

The voice of CoCo this week was provided by Qamar Schuyler, Coral Outreach Specialist for CRM, DEQ, and DFW.

Reminder

Coral Reef Summer Internship applications are due on April 14, 2005. The summer internship program places postsecondary students in positions at CRM, DEQ, and DFW. For more information, contact Qamar Schuyler at Qamar.Schuyler@crm.gov.mp.