Partnership Initiative for Sustainable Land Management (PISLM)

Submitted by katharina on 28 October 2011 - 12:00pm

The Partnership Initiative for Sustainable Land Management (PISLM) is one of the main institutional responses by the Caribbean SIDS Member States with respect to land resources. Led by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), it is an expression of the translation of the aims of the UNCCD and the Land Resources Chapter of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) into tangible deliverables.

Key Information
28 October 2011
Timeframe: 
Ongoing since 2004
Case Study
Background: 

PISLM started during a Regional Workshop on Land Degradation in Trinidad and Tobago in 2004, as an expression of the need for translation of the aims of the UNCCD into tangible deliverables. Forged between a numbers of institutions, the Partnership Initiative has a number of partners including UNEP, UNCCD Secretariat, FAO, CARICOM Secretariat, and University of the West Indies, Civil Society including (RIOD), GTZ and Caribbean SIDS.

In order to support the implementation of the aims of this Convention, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), adopted an Operational Program on Sustainable Land Management. Under this Operational Program the Global Mechanism has a major role to play in working with Parties to the Convention and other stakeholders including UN Agencies and the donor community in financial resource mobilization.

Results Achieved: 

• Assistance to a number of Caribbean SIDS in the preparation of their National Action Plan (NAPs);
• The establishment of a Support Office for the PISLM by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago through the Caribbean Centre for Integrated Rural Development (CNIRD) in Trinidad and Tobago and the commitment by the GoTT, GM/UNCCD; FAO and UNEP to support its operations;
• The formulation of a Five Year Business Plan for the PISLM (2009-2013);
• The establishment of an institutional and policy framework for the PISLM;
• Implementation of specific community based projects;
• The presentation of the concept of the PISLM to the Committee on Trade and Economic Development (COTED) of the Caribbean Community and its adoption by them and the extension of its mandate to address issues of rural development and poverty in the rural areas as an integral part of the promotion of sustainable land management practices;
• Development of linkages with similar programmes taking place elsewhere in the world e.g. China;
• Facilitation of South-South programmes between Caribbean SIDS and Latin American Countries (i.e. Mexico in the area of Public Policies for Land Degradation, Argentina with respect to indicators, etc).

Future Replicability
Lessons Learned: 

• To be effective in the implementation of programmes, given the limited resources available to the individual agencies to work with, it is better to pool resources among agencies and work together, rather than having each agency trying to work independently. The PISLM has been carried out this way and, as mentioned above, is being jointly implemented with resources and expertise from FAO, GM/UNCCD and UNEP.
• Partnerships need to be promoted at national and regional level between the non-state sector and the government, in order to augment the expertise needed in the implementation of programmes.

Key to Success for Future Replicability: 

The institutional framework provided by the PISLM offers a context for:
• Addressing the major long-term land management issues in SIDS, including, inter alia, deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices and other episodic events such as fire; and natural events such as severe weather events;
• Fostering complementarities between the various Multilateral Environment Agreements, particularly the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UNCCD;
• A more rational and systematic approach to resource mobilisation to support sustainable land management initiatives; and
• Facilitating more targeted interventions at the community level to address land management issues.

Contacts: 

Focal point(s) in lead country/organization
Mr. Mark Griffith
Senior Programme Officer
UNEP/ROLAC
mark.griffith@unep.org

Mr. Calvin James
Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development (CNIRD)
Director