Protected Area Stakeholders learn value of Monitoring and Evaluation

Over the three day period February 6^th – 8^th 2017, a team of 14 stakeholders participating in the “Improving Forest and Protected Area Management in Trinidad and Tobago” project took part in a workshop entitled “An Introduction to Monitoring and Evaluation”.  The workshop was deemed to be a very enlightening experience by participants.  

Learn more about the workshop at this link.

Blog Website Training

On Thursday 18th February, 2016 the Environmental Policy and Planning Division held two (2) back to back training sessions (9:30 - 10:30am and 10:30 - 11:30am respectively) with divisions of the Ministry of Planning and Development on setting up blogs.

Sharing the experience of the EPPD using blogs to maintain a strong presence on the internet and keep its stakeholders informed on their actions with regards to environmental management and policy, participants gained insight into the benefits of utilising the Web 2.0 tool to effectively communicate and share information with their stakeholders on the activities of their departments/units.

Additionally, attendees were also given a live and interactive tutorial on the features of and the creation a blog using the Google Blogger Platform. Participants included representatives from the Communications Unit, Town and Country Planning, Economic Development Advisory Board, European Development Fund Unit and the Technical Cooperation Unit of the Ministry. 

Presentation on the EPPD's blogs (click here for presentation)

A few of the participants of the first training session including Ms. Anastasia Gordon (first from the left) and Dr. David Persaud (first from the right) from the EPPD who facilitated the training sessions.

Some participants of the second session of the blog website training session.

LECB Technical Group Sessions

The Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit of the Ministry of Planning and Development hosted technical workshops  for the development of Low Carbon Action Plans and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) under the Low Emission Capacity Building (LECB) Programme, Trinidad and Tobago.

These working groups took place on November 5th and 6th, 2015 at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Mount Hope. The Consultant for these activities, Dr. Axel Michaelowa chaired these sessions.

On November 5th, the first session comprised presentations on NAMAs and Low Carbon Action Plans. The audience included a broad cross section of representatives from government, the private sector and civil society groups. In the afternoon of November 5th, two (2) technical working groups convened for the transportation sector and power generation sector.

A technical working group for the industry sector was held on November 6th. This group was further subdivided into the upstream and downstream groups. All technical working groups held discussions on potential NAMAs in their particular sectors, then ranked NAMA options based on feasibility and costs, etc. as well as advised on other related matters such as impediments to implementation or data gaps. 

Mr. Hans Schultz, Project Manger, introduces the LECB project  to the participants.

 

Cross-section of participants at the LECB Technical Working Group Sessions.

Approval of the Capacity Development for improved management of Multilateral Environmental Agreements for Global Environmental Benefits Project

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago through the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources has received approval from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for its project entitled, “Capacity Development for Improved Management of Multilateral Environmental Agreements for Global Benefits.”  This project will be done in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme.

The objective of this project is to strengthen national capacities for implementation of the Rio conventions (i.e. the Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and other Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in Trinidad and Tobago.

The project’s strategy is to achieve this through:

• training on environmental obligations, rules and regulations, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and  national reporting guidelines and requirements to the Conventions for key actors including civil society and key members of national institutions as well as coordinating bodies with responsibilities for  environmental matters 
• create, leverage and maintain coordination and alignment among relevant bodies by creating cross institutional alliances, strengthening management capacities for implementing Convention requirements and developing coordination mechanisms to replicate and disseminate necessary information and approaches 
• develop an awareness and communications strategy to raise awareness of MEA obligations and  requirements and disseminate project results awareness to effectively coordinate the achievement of global obligations.