The UNESCO 2001 Convention Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) accredited NGOs has secured $40,000 in seed funding from UNESCO to sensitise stakeholders and the maritime community in the Caribbean towards the negative impacts of treasure hunting, looting and trafficking of underwater cultural heritage.

These funds will be used for workshops and public facing outreach events that will be themed around UCH laws, ocean science, climatic, environmental and human impacts on heritage sites plus the actions of NGOs. To deliver this, an NGO working group has been set up to formulate a programme of stakeholder workshops and public outreach activities. These would be extensively promoted through traditional and social media outputs.

Workshops are being organized in south Florida and are being planned in Jamaica. These are seen as pilot initiatives that, once proven to be successful, will be replicated within the Caribbean and around the globe via the UNESCO, 2001 Convention, accredited NGO network.