THE local Division of Fish and Wildlife will host a public meeting regarding the CNMI Wildlife Action Plan on Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 5:30 p.m. at American Memorial Park, according to wildlife biologist and conservation planner Dacia Wiitala.
She will make short presentation and then open the meeting to questions.
The Wildlife Action Plan identifies the CNMI’s priority conservation actions for a 10-year period. The plan is also required to access certain federal funds.
The CNMI’s current Wildlife Action Plan covers the period from 2015 through October of next year, and Wiitala said the time is now to begin updating the islands’ priorities.
The current plan is available at https://dlnr.cnmi.gov/conservation-planning.html
Members of the public may also complete the CNMI Wildlife Action Plan Survey at https://tinyurl.com/wildlife-action-survey
Wiitala said the current plan has helped determine the presence, distribution and abundance of terrestrial birds and tree snails; established local coral nurseries; and increased education, internship, and on-the-job training opportunities for CNMI youth interested in conservation employment.
Wiitala said a Wildlife Action Plan helps the CNMI focus its conservation efforts.
“It helps us align our values so that we’re collectively working towards agreed upon outcomes,” she said. “I think most critically this plan helps [us] organize and plan. This is a statewide document. Government agencies are looking at this, private conservation groups are looking at this, the school groups are looking at this as they design conservation programs and projects. They can look at this and say what needs to be done, where does it need to be done, [and] how are we going to focus our attention.”
