A National Consultation was held in Anguilla on Monday and Tuesday this week aimed at developing a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, an Action Plan and a Public Education and Outreach Programme for the island. The work in Anguilla is part of a project in the Caribbean UK Overseas Territories to enhance capacity for adaptation to climate change.

Groups of participants at the Consultation

The consultation, at the Teachers’ Resource Centre, attended by participants from the public and private sectors, was facilitated by a number of overseas consultants led by Dr. U. O’D Trotz from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in Belize. The others were Ann Ballance from the UK Department For International Development; George de Berdt Romilly and Judi Clarke who are based in Canada and Barbados respectively.

The opening ceremony was chaired by Director of Environment, Karim Hodge, who later delivered presentations on the impacts of climate change in Anguilla and the climate change public awareness activities undertaken on the island.

Permanent Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office, Foster Rogers, who gave the official welcome, stressed that it was important for Anguilla to act now to adapt climate change strategies to reduce the risks of contributing to the man-made causes. He noted that tourism was the mainstay of the island’s economy and its importance to national wellbeing could not be over-emphasied. “In this regard,

Groups of participants at the Consultation

protection of the environment is critical to our progress and prosperity as a people of a unique culture,” he said. “Like other developing countries we too are attempting to find a balance between national development and the protection of the environment. There are challenges in Anguilla in this regard and, as a member of the world community, we too must join in doing our part in protecting it for the benefit of all mankind. Climate change is the greatest challenge facing the world today. It is a global issue that demands a global response.”

Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Victor Banks, spoke on behalf of Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming who has responsibility for the Environment. Mr. Banks hoped that the consultation would lead to some discussion not only on the nature of climate change but also generate ideas for the formulation of strategies and solutions to mitigate the impact of what he described as “one of the most defining challenges of our time.”

He said that Anguilla had place climate change “on the front burner” with the establishment of its own programme in 2007. “In hindsight we even appear to have been visionary to make the investment in environmental management,” Mr. Banks went on. “What is certain is that we are beginning to appreciate the critical nature of some of the challenges ahead of us when we decided to elevate the Environmental Unit to a Department. Although we did not have the human resources available, we knew that the concept and the subsequent investments, mainly training and funding, [would be for] the long term benefit of the people of Anguilla.”

Anguilla Government Officials and Consultants

He stated that since 2007 there had been steady progress in Anguilla and that the Government and its Environmental Department were further enlightened about the importance of developing clear policies to deal with climate change. As a consequence it was possible to share information and awareness on environmental management and sustainable practices with colleagues and the Anguillian people in particular.

He was happy that the consultation had provided a forum for all stakeholders towards the formulation of appropriate strategies and best practices needed to address climate change. He firmly believed that the discussions were timely, especially following the recent trauma experienced by Anguilla during the passing of hurricane Omar, a reminder of the weather and climate situation impacting a small island.

Under Anguilla’s Climate Change Programme, the following key local challenges have been identified: increasing extreme weather events, especially hurricanes and droughts; challenges for the fisheries sector, agricultural production, diseases; increasing sea surface temperatures; sea level rise; coral reef degradation and species habitat destruction.

An overview of the project and purpose of the country workshops was delivered by Dr. Trotz, who hails from Guyana. He recalled that the project had its origins in 1994 when small island states of the world met in Barbados to determine what the main environmental challenges were to the development of those states. The outcome was the Barbados Programme of Action which identified climate change as an issue of highest priority that needed to be addressed and led to a series of sponsored programmes by various bodies including the Organisation of American States, the World Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency and now the UK Department for International Development. He saw the effort as a necessary one “to facilitate the identification of risks that climate change will pose to the development of tourism, agriculture, water systems, health systems, coastal development” and how, as a region, to deal with those risks, making certain that the impacts would be less.

Dr. Trotz noted that Caribbean countries, with or without climate change, were already vulnerable to weather-related disasters. “The assumption is that if we start basically dealing with that vulnerability to present-day weather then we would have started on the road to deal climate change,” he said. “We would then be able to identify actions which would allow us to be much more resilient to the vagaries of present-day weather and as the signs of climate change become more specific, we could address those responses.” He said that the consultations in Anguilla and the other Overseas Territories were aimed at drawing local experiences on weather-related events to arrive at an action programme to deal with climate change adaptation.

The consultation included the delivery of a number of presentations by the facilitators followed by various group discussions by the participants. Among the discussions were priority issues of concern that needed to be addressed in the National Climate Change Adaptation Policy and Implementation Plan.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News