April 2011: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/GRID-Arendal Marine Programme has released the April 2011 edition of its newsletter, including the announcement of a new collaborative project on special planning for mammal protection in which UNEP/GRID-Arendal is a partner.

The newsletter describes the project, titled “Broad-scale marine spatial planning of mammal corridors and protected areas in Southeast and Northeast Pacific Region and the Wider Caribbean,” which forms part of the LifeWeb initiative. According to UNEP/GRID-Arendal, technical activities are being organized to address data-related issues for the mapping and Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis of marine mammal migration routes, critical habitats and human threats in these regions. Technical consultations will then bring together marine mammal and data management/GIS specialists to discuss the needs, availability and usability of geo-referenced data, methodologies for mapping marine mammal habitats. [Newsletter]