UN Environment established the Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) in 1981 as one of its Regional Seas Programmes in recognition of the importance and value of the Wider Caribbean Region’s fragile and vulnerable coastal and marine ecosystems including endemic plants and animals. Countries of the region then adopted an Action Plan also in 1981 that led to the development and adoption of the Cartagena Convention on 24 March 1983. The Cartagena Convention promotes the protection and development of the marine environment of the Region and provides the legal framework for the Caribbean Environment Programme. It is supported by three technical agreements or protocols on oil spills, specially protected areas and wildlife and land-based sources of marine pollution. The Caribbean Regional Co-ordinating Unit (CAR/RCU) was established in 1986 in Kingston, Jamaica and is the Secretariat for the Cartagena Convention and the Caribbean Environment Programme.