CARICOM Secretariat mounts display for International Day of Biodiversity
The CARICOM Secretariat has mounted a display in commemoration of International Day for Biodiversity. The theme for this year is Biodiversity for Sustainable Development which reflects the importance of biodiversity to the achievement of sustainable development, and highlights how biodiversity has been integrated into the proposed Sustainable Development Goals for the post-2015 development agenda.
The importance of biodiversity for poverty reduction and socio-economic development has also been recognised in the Samoa Pathway that emerged from the 2014 International Conference on Small Island Developing States, and in the Zero Draft of the outcome document for the upcoming International Conference on Financing for Development.
Project Coordinator at the CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Therese Yarde, said biodiversity was very important regionally. According to her, it is crucial to the health, well-being and livelihoods of citizens and communities.
Our natural ecosystems, through the agriculture, fishery, forestry, and tourism sectors, contribute fundamentally to the economies of the Region. Biodiversity supports food and nutrition security, contributes to climate change mitigation and adaptation, provides us with fresh water, protects our mountains and coastlines from erosion, provides venues for recreation, is a source of ground-breaking medicines,” she said.
She added that understanding the economic and social value of biodiversity is essential to making and implementing effective plans for its management, conservation and sustainable use.
This week, the CARICOM Secretariat, in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the government of Antigua and Barbuda, delivered a Regional capacity-building workshop with a focus on ecosystems valuation, and mobilising resources in support of biodiversity conservation, restoration and wise use. The workshop included a field trip to Antigua’s largest designated marine conservation site, the North East Coast Marine Management Area.
Last year, the Secretariat marked International Day of Biodiversity with a mangrove planting activity at the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project and a visit to some of their newly restored mangroves.