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Saint Lucia begins National Capacity Needs Self Assessment


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Monday, July 11, 2005 - Moves have begun here in an attempt to bring together all stakeholders involved in environmental conservation and preservation to identify constraints and forge a definitive way forward for environmental management.

The initiative is being spearheaded by the United Nations via the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Physical Development, Environment and Housing and other agencies like the Saint Lucia National Trust.

Saint Lucia will launch its National Capacity Needs Self Assessment project on July 26th at the Bay Gardens Hotel. Project Co-ordinator Shirlene Simmons said the rational is to fall in line with UN guidelines to create synergies between four major environmental conventions to which Saint Lucia is party. According to Simmons, over the past few years the island has produced many sectoral policies and action plans that address various aspects of environmental concerns. However she said, “The resulting situation is that there are several action plans and programmes with no coordination mechanism to ensure cohesion and or consistency.”

Simmons said the situation, coupled with weak coordinating mechanisms make the approach to environmental management very difficult. “Under each multilateral environmental convention there are capacity needs that are identified and must be addressed. What we are doing at this time is attempting to create synergies between four UN Conventions namely the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.”

She also said, “We are also seeking to identify capacity needs and address then as they relate to these convention as a whole in stead of doing it on a one-on-one basis…creating synergies reduces the cost per activity under each convention and provides cohesion and identification of what needs to be achieved across the board respecting the various conventions.”

She said, the new harmonized approach will feed into a comprehensive National Environmental Management Strategy being pursued by the Government of Saint Lucia.


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