A new green push

By Dana Niland
CJ Contributor

St Kitts and Nevis is launching two major new environmental projects.

The country’s Department of Environment has unveiled projects directed at conserving biodiversity and adapting to climate change in the twin-island federation.

The first project, Conserving Biodiversity and Reducing Habitat Degradation in Protected Areas and their Areas of Influence, is aimed at improving ecosystem representation in the protected areas system, as well as strengthening institutional, policy, legal, or regulatory information and financing frameworks at the protecte-areas-system level.

The four-year, $3.3 million project is being funded by the Global Environment Fund and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

“The project will assist the Government of St Kitts and Nevis in establishing, staffing and equipping a Protected Area Agency, the first government unit dedicated to protected areas in the country’s history,” said Randolph Edmeade, Director of the country’s Department of Physical Planning.  “This Agency will oversee and manage the overall protected area system as well as the specific protected area units.”

The second project entails the national re-launch of the Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Land Management Project in the Eastern Caribbean, which is being funded by the Global Climate Change Alliance and implemented by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Commission.

The $14 million project’s objective is to improve the region’s natural resource base resilience to the impacts of climate change through effective methods of sustainable land management (SLM) frameworks and practices.

“St Kitts and Nevis is expected to reap significant benefits from this project across several sectors,” said Earvin Parry, Environmental Scientist in the Department of Physical Planning and Environment.

Both projects will run until 2018.