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Contact:
John Emmanuel
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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