Page 32 - bon-dia-aruba-20200805

a32 local
Wednesday 5 august 2020

Department of Nature and Environment (DNM):
Mangroves cover 1.15 % of Aruba’s territory

effective carbon sinks, sequestering Aruba has four kinds of mangroves: the red mangrove,
vast amounts of carbon. the black mangrove, the white mangrove or Shimaron
Yet mangroves are disappearing and the Fofoti. All mangroves are protected by law as
three to five times faster than overall incorporated in our national decree for the protection
global forest losses, with serious eco- of local flora and fauna (Landsbesluit bescherming in-
logical and socio-economic impacts. heemse flora en fauna - AB 2017 no 48). Also the plants
Current estimates indicate that man- are protected by international laws (Special Protected
grove coverage has been divided by Areas and Wildlife or SPAW protocol). The recently official
two in the past 40 years. made protection of 16 nature areas on the island by law
ORANJESTAD — July 26 marked the Internation- DNM has calculated the area of include the protection of our mangroves. q
al Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove mangrove coverage by making use
Ecosystem, adopted by the General Confer- of the program ArcGIS which coordi- Telecommunications company Setar and the
ence of UNESCO in 2015 and celebrated each nates system Tranverse Mercator Aru- Department of Public Health (DVG) introduce:
year on July 26. With this, UNESCO aims to raise ba. The polygon (a geometric figure)
awareness of the importance of mangrove is used to measure the total area cov- An innovative solution:

ecosystems as ‘a unique, special and vulner- ered by mangroves which resulted in the Aruba Health App
able ecosystem’ and to promote solutions for the percentage of 1, 15. The project
their sustainable management, conservation was a collaboration between DNM ORANJESTAD — Since mid- VID-19 testing in Aruba,
and uses. and the Department of Infrastructure April, Setar; together with they would receive their
and Planning (DIP). The areas of man- DVG (Department of Pub- results on the app within 24
Mangroves are rare, spectacular and prolific grove son Aruba are: Rincon, Daimari, lic Health) and the Aru- hours. If the test comes out
ecosystems on the boundary between land Zeewijk, Rif Renaissance, Bucuti Aero- ban government, have positive, the person will au-
and sea. These extra ordinary ecosystems con- puerto, Parkietenbos, Rif Palm Island, begun the first part of the tomatically be added to
tribute to the wellbeing, food security, and Bubali Plas, Boca Grandi, Mangel Hal- ‘DVG Health Check App’, DVG’s quarantine adminis-
protection of coastal communities worldwide. to, Rif Mangel Halto, Barcadera, Sali- which was created for the tration system, so that they
They support a rich biodiversity and provide ña Cerca, Eagle Beach, Plas The Mill, registration and manage- are able to monitor and
a valuable nursery habitat for fish and crusta- Santo Largo, Baby Beach and Rif San ment of people in quar- follow close developments
ceans. Mangroves also act as a form of natural Nicolas. Mangroves also are present antine. The goal of the of the person’s case and
coastal defense against storm surges, tsunamis, in the areas of Parke National Aruba DVG’s Health Check App health.
rising sea levels and erosion. Their soils are highly and Rooi Prikichi. is to have a better view of Setar together with their
Aruba to me is …. A wonderful life the registered coronavirus partners are working on
cases on the island and to upcoming developments
closely follow the develop- of the app for the future.
ments of those in quaran- The goal of the app is to
ORANJESTAD — Aruba Today welcomes tine, thus combating the continue growing, sustain-
readers to participate in our newspaper. virus on Aruba. ing, and managing the
Now that we are open to visitors again health of tourists and locals
after the three months of lockdown we The second part of the on Aruba. Setar; as our na-
are all ears to hear about you. How do project, which com- tional telecommunications
you feel to be back or maybe this is your menced in June, is called company, is proud to be a
first time in Aruba? Let us know! Send us ‘Aruba Health App’ and is part of innovative solutions
a picture and tell us about your experi- a collaboration between that will help fight and con-
ence because we love to share this with Setar, DVG, HOH, ATA and trol the transmission of the
our readers. Futura. The app focuses on corona virus on Aruba.q

the tourists who are visiting
What do you do? the island. The app was
It’s easy. Mail us your vacation picture(s) launched on the 4th of
together with completing the sentence: July and is now available
Aruba to me is …….. (Email: news@aru- on Google and Apple app
batoday.com) and we will publish this in stores for tourists to down-
our newspaper. This for sure is a great va- load before they travel to
cation memory to take home with you. Aruba.
For today’s newspaper we received The Aruba Health App of-
some great pictures from Donald Clag- fers tourists different infor-
ett. He says: mation regarding the virus,
from the time they arrive
“Aruba to me is experiencing a ‘won- and throughout their stay
derful life’ on Palm Beach in January.”q in Aruba. For example,
if a tourist did their CO-