Abstract

The 2017 Hurricane Season saw disastrous weather events throughout the Caribbean. Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused widespread damage and destruction to various Caribbean Countries. Aside from damage caused to home and infra-structure there was also significant ecosystem impacts caused by both Hurricanes. Hurricane Irma impacted the Marine Environment significantly, causing the Management Authority, the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation, to adjust its conserva-tion strategies and management plans to include disaster preparedness and ecosystem resiliency plans moving forward. These plans and strategies include the health and safety of personnel, having a scenario-based preparedness plan, having good ecosystem data available for post-hurricane assessments, the inclusion of conservation management organizations in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Teams, the inclusion of disaster preparedness and response in Protected Area Manage-ment Plans, using ecosystem valuation studies as a basis for post disaster damage assessments of ecosystems, and the com-munication of the importance of Natural Resource Conservation Management in terms of resiliency. Using these lessons learned the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation will be better prepared to respond to emergency scenarios and ensure ecosys-tem res

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