UNCCD strengthens cooperation with CARICOM on sustainable land management
Amid looming challenges posed by climate change, and increasing concerns of prolonged droughts facing Member States within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) has reaffirmed its commitment to support the Community in its efforts to promote and implement policies for sustainable land management
Caribbean Net News | March 31, 2010
Edwin Carrington, CARICOM Secretary General
On Friday March 26, 2010, Edwin Carrington, CARICOM Secretary-General met with Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary, UNCCD, in discussions to chart a course of action in the implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the CARICOM and UNCCD Secretariats in July 2002.
During the meeting Secretary-General Carrington highlighted several challenges the Region faced as a result of the land degradation, which was heightened by improper land management practices including slash and burn agriculture; uncontrolled livestock grazing on fragile lands; poor road construction; and unplanned or poorly planned settlements in landslide-prone areas.
Carrington pointed out that problems associated with land degradation were particularly troubling to the agricultural sector and food security, as it had caused the erosion of valuable top-soil which was washed into canals, rivers and out to sea during heavy rains, resulting in loss of productivity in the sector.
With such challenges and those associated with the tourism industry, several CARICOM Member States have become signatories to the UNCCD. Those Member States are: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Haiti, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and St Kitts and Nevis.
The meeting on Friday discussed the need to review the MOU in respect of new development challenges facing the Caribbean, including the reconstruction of Haiti. Gnacadja noted that the UNCCD had a keen interest in working with the Community in Haiti’s reconstruction, particularly in the development of strategies to build land cover in Haiti, and to build its resilience to natural disasters and other threats associated with climate change.
The MOU between the Caribbean Community and the UNCCD was entered into due to acuteness of land degradation and growing problems of drought and water shortage in the Caribbean States and against the recognition that the problem of land degradation could not be targeted exclusively at the national level.
It was also inspired by CARICOM’s commitment to address environmental vulnerabilities in the Small Island Developing States in its sub-region through the promotion of long-term strategies and policies for sustainable development.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment