The Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) is one of the UNEP administered Regional Seas Programmes. The CEP is managed by and for the countries of the Wider Caribbean Region through the Caribbean Action Plan (1981) outlining regional environmental challenges.

The Action Plan led to the 1983 adoption of the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (Cartagena Convention), which provides the legal framework. The Convention has been supplemented by three protocols addressing specific environmental issues namely, oil spills, specially protected areas and wildlife and land-based sources and activities of marine pollution. The CEP provides the programmatic framework for the Cartagena Convention.

The Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment in the Wider Caribbean Region is a comprehensive, umbrella agreement for the protection and development of the marine environment. This regional environmental convention provides the legal framework for cooperative regional and national actions in the WCR.

The Convention is supplemented by the Oil Spills Protocol, the SPAW Protocol and the LBS Protocol. Although the Contracting Parties designated UNEP-CAR/RCU as the Secretariat of the Cartagena Convention, Contracting Parties may use Regional Activity Centres (RACs) for the coordination and implementation of activities in support of the Cartagena Convention and its Protocols and Regional Activity Networks (RANs) for the provision of expertise.

The Cartagena Convention was adopted in Cartagena, Colombia on 24 March 1983 and entered into force on 11 October 1986, for the legal implementation of the Action Plan for the Caribbean Environment Programme.