 The Saint Lucia National Trust has wrapped up a five-day training program in the proper use of unmanned aerial systems, commonly referred to as drones. This training was undertaken as part of capacity-building component of a rapid-response project which is being funded by the European Union and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States through the bioparma program. The training agenda included a combination of theoretical and practical sessions, Dr. Kimberly Baldwin of Marine Spatial Information Solutions, based in Barbados, facilitated the sessions. How to safely and effectively fly a drone, understand all the operational policies, protocols and regulations that exist here in Saint Lucia, but also globally, and I've taught them how to operate in a commercial or professional standard for drones, and we learned how to take videos and photography, but we also learned about using drone mapping programs to conduct drone mapping and monitoring surveys as well. The Saint Lucia National Trust then visages that following this training, its staff as well as those at the Department of Fisheries will be better equipped to monitor, manage and conserve Saint Lucia's natural resources, habitats and heritage and conservation sites. Drones allow us the ability to capture real-time information which is often times much higher accuracy and resolution that we are getting from a satellite or aerial airplane images. So the benefits of using drone imagery are, I can go on for hours, disaster management and mapping, I'm using drones for mapping historical sites, but also mapping subgasm, we're using drones to look at climate change issues such as erosion, flooding events, we're using drones for agriculture and looking at precision farming applications. The training session was held at the Saint Lucia National Trust's southern office in the Maria Island Interpretation Centre in V4, and the participants of this training comprise of members of the Saint Lucia National Trust's technical and management team and the Department of Fisheries.