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OECS
Secretariat secures a two million US dollar contribution
from USAID to support biodiversity. |
October 18,
2007: OECS Secretariat secures a two million US dollar
contribution from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) to support efforts that protect the
biodiversity of the Eastern Caribbean.
The OECS Secretariat has secured a two million US dollar
contribution from the United States Agency for International
Development USAID to support efforts that protect the
biodiversity of the Eastern Caribbean.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of all life on earth, as
well as the complex relationships among living things, and
between living things and their environment. Biodiversity
includes variability in communities, ecosystems and
landscapes and also maintains the environments in which we
live and on which our lives and those of every other living
creature on Earth depend. |
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Keith Nichols,
Director of the OECS Secretariat’s Environment and
Sustainable Development Unit says although OECS countries
have large endowments of biodiversity-rich ecosystems there
is unfortunately growing evidence of these fragile
ecosystems being destroyed: “Such degradation is
particularly associated with poorly-planned coastal
development, population growth, tourism, pollution,
over-exploitation of living resources, accelerated
sedimentation associated with changes in upstream land use,
rapid expansion of coastal developments, and the
introduction of exotic species.”
Nichols warns that important biological systems,
particularly beaches, coral reefs, wetlands, tropical
forests and sea-grass beds, are under intense pressure,
threatening the region's biological diversity.
Therefore, through the acquisition of funds, the USAID and
the OECS Secretariat will seek to strengthen national
capacities in the sound management of biodiversity as well
as establish or strengthen a number of biologically
significant sites. Nichols welcomes the offer by USAID as
one that will siginificantly complement other interventions
to “ tackle challenges encountered in managing our
biodiversity .The recent arrangement with US AID will also
go towards enhancing public awareness and education on
biodiversity and involving communities, civil society and
the private sector in the participatory management of
biodiversity.
An official presentation of the USAID funds will he held at
a signing ceremony in St. Lucia, on Thursday October 18th,
2007.
Officials from the OECS secretariat believe that the recent
financial support from USAID will further enhance efforts to
sustain the biodiversity of the wider Caribbean. Through
biodiversity, one is able to obtain essential items such as
food, clothing, medicine, and fuel. The ecosystem services
that biodiversity provides, such as clean air and drinkable
water are also important. However scientists have identified
global climate change, and pollution, among a number of
universal threats to biodiversity.
Recognizing the importance of the sustainable management of
its natural resources and rich biodiversity, the Governments
of the OECS have made significant commitments to protecting
their countries' resources as signatories to international
conventions and through policy statements, legal and
institutional instruments, recent environmental programs,
and financial support of conservation activities through
budget allocations. At the international level, the
independent Member States were some of the first countries
to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
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