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REGION URGED TO MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT A PRIORITY

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Twenty-Fifth Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on the Environment opened formally on 17 April 2008 with the acknowledgement that collective action was critical to confronting the environmental challenges that the Region faced.

The link between the environment and the quality of life of the Region’s citizens was also stressed by the speakers at the brief function at the opening of the two-day Meeting at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC).

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) H.E. Edwin Carrington said that the meeting was long overdue, particularly against the background of the environmental disasters the Caribbean and other Regions of the world faced recently.

Among those cited by the Secretary-General were the 2005 floods in Guyana; Hurricane Ivan in Grenada, and Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in the Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and Katrina in the USA; as well as famine in sub-Saharan Africa and the tsunami in South East Asia.

Against the background of those events, Secretary-General Carrington said he was happy that the COTED Meeting would deliberate on the development of a Caribbean Community Environmental and Natural Resource Policy Framework and related issues such as climate change, disaster management, renewable energy, water resource management and the management of marine and food resources.

“These are all critical issues that affect the lives of the people of our Community, which comprises Small Island Developing and Low-Lying Coastal States. It can also be reasonably expected that the policies, plans and programmes which are initiated in the context of such a Framework will have a beneficial impact on the successful implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), “he said.

The Caribbean Community Environmental and Natural Resource Framework, the Secretary-General added, must develop a strategic approach which, while optimising the use of the Region’s modest resources, would also protect the environment.

“The need for improved institutional capacity to address this issue must be recognised and pursued,” he said and urged that multi-disciplinary efforts be employed to find solutions to the many complex developmental issues which the Region currently faced.

“This Meeting provides a further opportunity for the renewal of relationships and the development of closer linkages and networks between Regional institutions and government officials, as we work towards the conservation, management and sustainable use of our physical, human and other resources,” he said.

He expressed the hope that the meeting would more deeply focus attention on and strengthen the Region’s commitment to the incorporation of environmental issues into national and Regional development policy and planning processes.

“Too often, other developmental issues are given priority. I want to take this opportunity to stress that the Community needs to take steps at the national and Regional levels to improve education and awareness among the population so that they can better appreciate the linkages between the environment and the quality of life not least of their very sustenance,” he said.

Hon. Robert Persaud, Minister of Agriculture, Guyana, in his remarks at the opening ceremony, said there was an urgent need for the Region to safeguard its food resources as well as its freshwater resources as one of the ways to address the environmental issues confronting the Caribbean.

“Even as we move forward on developing a comprehensive Regional approach to climate change, with the effects rapidly intensifying and dire consequences for food security globally and regionally, there is an urgent need to safeguard our food resources, and integral to this, our freshwater resources.

“Many of our territories are water scarce, and even where freshwater may be in abundance, it is not without threat. As a Region, we need to take urgent steps towards a comprehensive assessment and management of our water resources, as they say `Water is life’ and our very existence depend on the actions we take today,” he told the Meeting.

Pertinent to the COTED’s deliberations, he said, was the rapid increase of food prices, a challenge that was facing the entire world.

“Many of the issues to be covered in our meetings, and subsequent actions can, directly and indirectly, influence our ability to respond to these massive food price increases,” he said.

With regard to climate change, Minister Persaud pointed out that agriculture was the “chief victim” of the changing weather pattern. Bearing in mind the fact that the Region is witnessing more frequent and intense weather events which threaten economies, he recognized the need to build on and move forward expeditiously with the implementation of a Comprehensive Disaster Management Strategy.

In the context of the rising fuel prices and its implications for all sectors of the economy, the Minister also called for an increase in momentum towards renewable energy, building capacity for its management and opportunities for financing and access to technology. He also placed emphasis on the development of agro-energy in a manner that would not add to the Region’s environmental challenges nor jeopardize its food security.

The Hon, Allen Chastanet, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Saint Lucia, also made remarks at the opening ceremony. He noted that climate change provided both opportunities and challenges for the Region and called for a more aggressive approach towards tackling environmental problems.

Caribbean society, he added, needed to value the environment in which they lived and this has to “start at the school level”.

“Unless our people can live the benefits of an environmentally-friendly society, we will get nowhere,” Minister Chastanet said.

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