Pellucid supports the development of the latest CPAG Dashboard!

At Pellucid IT Inc., we are proud to have supported the Oracabessa Marine Trust through the "Strengthening Data Management in Marine Protected Areas in Jamaica" project, funded by the GEF Small Grants.

This collaboration was facilitated through the Caribbean Protected Areas Gateway (CPAG)—a regional knowledge platform originally established under the BIOPAMA Project and currently transitioning to a new host, the The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Commission (OECS). During this transition, CPAG partnered with the Jamaica MPA Network to enhance digital tools for marine conservation. One key outcome of this partnership was the development of the CPAG MPA Dashboard, a web-based application built by the software engineering team at Pellucid IT Inc.

What is the CPAG MPA Dashboard?

The CPAG MPA Dashboard is designed to strengthen data management and promote sustainable marine conservation practices across the Caribbean. The platform enables MPA managers to upload ecological monitoring data—such as ReefCheck, AGRRA, and other protocols—through specified reporting spreadsheets, among others. Submitted data is then transformed . Government officials and authorized regional stakeholders can also view consolidated reports across multiple MPA sites to track ecological health indicators over time.

Key Moments of the Project

The project reached two major milestones through the workshops held on May 21st and May 28th:

• Day 1 - May 21st: Training for Jamaica MPA Managers. During this session, MPA managers from across Jamaica were trained on how to use the dashboard, upload data, and leverage the platform’s functionality to monitor and analyze ecological health indicators at their respective sites.
• Day 2 - May 28th: Regional Stakeholder Engagement. This workshop expanded the reach of the project, introducing the platform to stakeholders from both marine and terrestrial protected areas across the Caribbean. During this session, key speakers shared their thoughts on the significance of the project and its potential for the region.

📢 Here’s what some of our esteemed speakers had to say about the project:

🔹 Hyacinth Douglas, National Coordinator for the GEF Small Grants Program in Jamaica: "I want to congratulate the Oracabessa Trust and their partners because you are why we are so proud. When we talk about a bottoms-up approach and finding solutions at the community level, this is a classic example. The Caribbean ought to be proud of what we’re doing as a region."

🔹 Inilek Wilmot, Board Member of the Oracabessa Marine Trust: "While we as MPA managers in Jamaica are quite eager to provide data to be accessible by policymakers and international-level stakeholders, we also need functional tools that add value to our MPA management systems. We see this as needing value coming down as well as going up. Through our discussions with CPAG, we realized there was an opportunity to create this value. From all the outcomes of this project, I personally feel that the functional data management we're achieving through this partnership is the most impactful outcome."

🔹 Hyacinth Armstrong-Vaughn, Protected Areas Officer for IUCN: "This is exactly what CPAG is meant to do: working with national, regional, and site-level stakeholders to provide data from the ground up. This is an example of how we’re making Caribbean data available, robust, and detailed to inform decision-making."

🔹 Kwabena Adu, Software Engineer for CPAG and CEO of Pellucid IT Inc.: "The dashboard goes beyond analytics; it's also a secure repository for data, eliminating the risk of lost data due to misplaced devices or forgotten passwords. CPAG is now your secure data home."

The Impact and Future

This project is part of a larger initiative funded by the UNDP and implemented by the GEF Small Grants Programme, with a goal of enhancing the management mechanism of Jamaica’s network of MPAs through improved collaborative ecological monitoring.

The CPAG MPA Dashboard plays a key role in improving the data collection, management, and application processes, which are essential for effective decision-making. Through the platform, managers can access real-time data, visualize trends, and share valuable information with stakeholders, including funders, to support sustainable conservation efforts.

We are excited to see the ongoing development of the platform and look forward to working closely with the Jamaica MPA Network to add more features that will further support their conservation efforts.

🔗 Watch the full workshop recording on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvlv3QIJCMQ

🔗 Explore the CPAG MPA Dashboard - https://thecpag.org/mpad