The week of September 14 through the 22 saw
Lester Blackett, Director of Physical Planning, Natural Resources
and the Environment for the Nevis Island Administration and
John Guilbert, Executive Director for the Nevis Historical
and Conservation Society attending a workshop focused on Participatory
Planning and Collaborative Management in St. Lucia. The workshop
was hosted by the Caribbean Region Environmental Programme
(CREP) and conducted by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute
(CANARI). The countries attending this workshop were Trinidad
& Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana, Dominica, St. Vincent &
the Grenadines, St. Lucia and St. Kitts-Nevis. In October
the remaining countries of Barbados, Belize, Suriname, Antigua
– Barbuda, Bahamas and Grenada will attend a similar
session.
In
previous media releases it was made known that St. Kitts-Nevis
was the recipient of an EU$500,000.00 grant to support the
environmental development of the Nevis Bath Estate, which
includes, but not limited to, the Bath House, Stream, Hotel
and Bogs areas. This project is one of the key components
of the CREP, a regional sustainable development initiative
authorized by the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean &
Pacific States (CARIFORUM) through a Financing Agreement with
the European Union under the 7th European Development Fund.
CREP,
which is a sub-organisation of the Caribbean Conservation
Association (CCA), has identified the Bath Estate, the Amenity
Area Demonstration Site, as an area of significant ecological
and economic value along with 12 other sites in Caribbean
countries. CREP and CANARI will support the 13 country projects
with training, funding and guidance as we approach and develop
our sites.
The
training that Messrs Blackett and Guilbert attended was designed
for government and non-government agencies (NGO) to work together
with a common purpose. There were a number of objectives for
this workshop such as 1.) To understand the Caribbean context
for the CREP project and what is meant by sustainable development;
2.) To discuss the ways in which the CREP project aims to
contribute to sustainable development; 3.) To understand what
is meant by an amenity area or sustainable living demonstration
site.
Once
we had this overview and understanding, we were able to work
as a country team in areas of Participatory Planning, Stakeholder
Identification & Analysis, Approaches for Stakeholder
Involvement, Institutional Arrangements, Collaborative Management
and Capacity Building. This training has enabled us to understand
and be able to develop a participatory process with the stakeholders
(those people who live in, own, influence or depend on the
site) for the sustainable development of the site. One of
the most important lessons learned by the participants (which
are called Focal Point Organisations, or FPO’s) of the
workshop was the value of working together in a collaborative
way to achieve our common goals. Additional training will
be given through CREP and by CANARI as we move along in our
work.
Each
country has selected launch dates for their individual project,
with Nevis selecting November 26, 27 and 28 to conduct our
launch. Between now and the launch dates there will be a series
of pre-meetings with stakeholders in preparation for the launch
and beyond the launch. We believe we have given ourselves
enough time before the launch to be totally prepared to insure
a successful launch for a long over-due project. You, the
public and stakeholders will be kept informed of our schedule
of events as we move ahead.
