Madame Chair
Dr. Greene
Ms. Recio
Mr. Barnwell
Representatives of International Organisations
Members of the Media
Special Invitees

Good morning all. It is my pleasure to welcome you - those visiting as well as our local colleagues to this workshop. I understand that for the coming days, this forum would be addressing needs prioritization as they relate to Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

In today’s context, many of the environmental problems facing our planet, such as climate change, drought and land degradation, and waste management are trans-boundary in nature, and often have global scope and impacts.

It is our view that these problems can only be addressed effectively through international co-operation. Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) therefore constitute a primary tool under international law for countries to work together on these global environmental issues.

These MEAs play a significant role in developing countries, either by influencing their domestic policies or by inducing them to follow higher environmental standards. However, the limitations faced by developing countries, such as the lack of manpower, limited technical capacities and access to financial resources often make the full implementation of MEAs challenging.

Cognizant of the challenges facing developing countries, UNEP is currently coordinating a four-year capacity enhancement programme for the implementation of MEAs in the Caribbean as well as African and Pacific countries. It is hoped that through this capacity building initiative all ACP countries will be better equipped to comply with the requirements of all MEAs to which they are signatories. It is also hoped that this initiative will help to improve the management of environmental and natural resources within each country. At the end of this project, the Region should therefore be more strategically poised to achieve the Millennium Development Goal no.7.

As the focal point for the initiative in Guyana, the Environmental Protection Agency welcomes this initiative and looks forward to significant progress being made in enabling and equipping all countries of the Caribbean hub to meet their obligations under the various MEAs they are signatory to.

Through sound environmental and natural resource management, the region would be assured a sustainable and prosperous future for this generation as well as those to come.

I would like to acknowledge the support being provided by the EU Commission in this ground-breaking initiative, as well as UNEP and the CARICOM for undertaking the implementation of the project.

I urge you to make full use of the opportunity and to wish you all success in developing your capacity.

Thank you.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org