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This week’s symposium on Caribbean coral reefs at the Royal Palace on the Dam in Amsterdam has raised questions by Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament André Bosman of the liberal democratic VVD party.
Bosman sent four written questions to Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk on Friday in which he asked about the state of the coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea and the economic and natural value of these reefs for the Dutch Caribbean islands.
The Member of Parliament (MP) urged the Minister to give the fragile reefs which are so important for the island’s nature and tourism sufficient attention. “To what extent do you agree that the future of the coral reefs receive sufficient attention in the Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten?”
Bosman subsequently asked the Minister to have the coral reefs and their economic and natural value placed on the agenda of the next Kingdom Conference, and also included in the contacts with the public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.
The MP’s questions related to symposium titled “Sustainable Caribbean” which took place at the Palace on the Dam on Tuesday, December 6, 2016, in the presence of King Willem- Alexander, Queen Máxima and Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands. The King and Queen hosted the symposium.
Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and lecturer maritime ecology at the University of Wageningen Professor Han Lindeboom developed the symposium which featured two special guests: Glenn Thodé, former Bonaire Island Governor and currently rector of the University of Aruba, and lecturer oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California Jeremy Jackson.
The orators spoke about the state of the coral reefs in the Dutch Caribbean, the threats that these reefs face in general, but also the specific factors that are of influence due to the location of these reefs and the local social-economic circumstances. Objective of the symposium was to stress how the humans can positively contribute to healthy coral reefs.
The Daily Herald.