PROPER land management should be implemented to protect the Caricom’s limited land resources, which are under constant threat of severe degradation and costal erosion.
This was the view expressed at the first meeting on the Partnership Initiative on Sustainable Land Management, which was held last Friday at the Cascadia Hotel and Conference Centre, St Ann’s.
The partnership serves as a mechanism to facilitate the exchange of experiences and good land management practices between participating countries. The initiative was intended to stimulate the replication of various approaches, tools and methodologies throughout the region.
Director of the Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development Calvin James said island states have challenges with land management.
“Our main issues are land degradation and costal erosion, and so this meeting is geared towards providing a synergy among nations in order mitigate or reverse some of the impacts of degradation,” James explained.
Anya Thomas, Caricom’s representative to the meeting, noted that most of Caricom’s population live on land subjected to erosion, and as such, improvements were necessary to protect the livelihood of the people.
“A green economy should also be looked at when it comes to land management practices. This will preserve the lands that are there instead of destroying it through development,” she noted.
Head of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit at the Ministry of Housing and the Environment Kishan Kumarsingh hailed the meeting, saying it laid the groundwork for further consultations at international conferences.
The Council for Trade and Economic Development meeting of Caricom is expected to be held next month and it is expected at this meeting regional states will begin the process of looking at ways to streamline environmental issues and sustainable land management into policy and decision making in a regional context.
Kumarsingh explained that this framework was important, since it was easy for the concerns of Small Island Developing States, such as those in the Caribbean, to become marginalised.
