The Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at UWI Mona, has received funding in the amount of just over $4.5 million dollars from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica. The grant is for the Department’s mangrove ecosystem’s inventory project. The Department will, over 18 months, develop an inventory of mangroves which will be used to create illustrated field guides to the fauna and flora in the island’s mangroves. The project will involve the collection and photographing of animals and plants for inclusion in the field guides. The direct outputs of the project will also include training of UWI graduates in taxonomy – the science of classifying living and extinct organisms, the creation of a species inventory and the development of materials for public education.