Improving Forests and Protected Area Management in T&T Project

In October 2014, the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources  officially signed on to a project that would be jointly funded with the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the European Union (EU) to revise the management of Protected Areas (PAs) in line with the newly adopted National Policies on Forests, Protected Areas and Wildlife. 

The Project has a four year timeline and is earmarked for six test sites, two of which are located in Tobago.  The complete list of project sites are:

• North East Tobago Marine Protected Area 
• Main Ridge Forest Reserve 
• Nariva Swamp 
• Trinity Hills/Victoria-Mayaro 
• Caroni Swamp 
• Matura

While the project is aimed at actualising the concepts of the National Policies for Wildlife and Protected Areas (PAs), it would seek to do so through four technical components:

1. Improvements to the legal and institutional arrangements for PA management
2. Improvements to infrastructure for biodiversity conservation and forest restoration 
3. Development and testing of sustainable financing system
4. Monitoring and evaluation and information dissemination.

It is anticipated that these strategies of the Project would yield outcomes with tangible benefits such as a Protected Area system that accounts for approximately 214000ha, almost 100000ha of which would be designated as new Protected Areas. 

Additionally, the project would pilot methodologies for a sustainable financing system which would include a revenue generating mechanism for the sites, an organisational structure which promotes and formalises co-management of PAs with stakeholders from the private sector and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and development of personnel capacity and infrastructure for effective management of PAs.

Caribbean Thematic Workshop on Enabling National Conditions for the Adoption of Standards in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Sector

The United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean  (UNEP ROLAC) hosted the Workshop on Enabling National Conditions for the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) Sector during the period  October 14 - 16, 2014 in Panama City, Panama.

The Caribbean Region was represented by delegations from Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago. The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago was represented at this three (3) day Workshop by Mr. Javed Lakhan,  Environmental Policy Analyst, Environmental Policy and Planning Division, Ministry of Environment and  Water Resources.

The meeting focused on the sharing of experiences among Caribbean countries with respect to the formulation and  adoption of National Standards in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Sector, in the context of the Montreal Protocol and each country’s Hydrochlorofluorocarbon Phase-Out Management Plan (HPMP). Other important issues discussed included the drafting and adoption of regional standards in the RAC sector as well as which countries would take the lead in formulation of these regional standards.

Overall the workshop was very productive, in that, it laid the foundation for considerable progress to be made in terms of collaboration between Caribbean and Latin American countries in creating, adapting, adopting and implementing proper standards within the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Sector.

 

Introductory Workshop on Industrial Chemicals under the Rotterdam Convention

The Basel Convention Regional Centre for the Caribbean (BCRC-Caribbean) hosted an Introductory Workshop on Industrial Chemicals under the Rotterdam Convention for the Caribbean Sub-region, from the 8th to 10th October, 2014 at the Hilton, in Port-of-Spain.

In attendance were representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Mr. Alex Mangwiro of the Secretariat of the Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam Convention and Dr. Kersten Gutschmidt of the World Health Organisation (WHO) were also in attendance and acted as the facilitators of the Workshop. Trinidad and Tobago was represented by Ms. Keima Gardiner from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR), as well as representatives from the Chemistry Food and Drugs  Division, Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs. 

 

The overarching aim of the workshop was to utilize a range of activities to aid in increasing awareness of the  Rotterdam Convention, as well as develop and/or strengthen the national framework for the sound management of industrial chemicals.

 

The Workshop comprised of several technical presentations in the morning period, followed by simulation exercises in the afternoon based on the presentations which included: stakeholder identification and import responses for industrial chemicals, risk assessment, and development of a country strategy for the management of a specific chemical using the Rotterdam Convention Resource Toolkit. The Workshop served as a useful platform for networking with the key stakeholders  involved in the management of  industrial chemicals in the country.

 
 

Group shot of all the participants at the Workshop including Ms. Gardiner, EPPD, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (front row, 3rd from the right)