Saint Lucia

Sustainable Development and Environmental Unit of the Ministry of Planning, Development, Environment and Housing. Administering agency: the World Bank Executing agency: the Organization of American States (OAS), the Regional Project Implementing Unit established by the University of the West Indies-Centre for Environment andDevelopment (UWICED).

The project was undertaken as a regional response to the 1994 Global Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) held in Barbados. Twelve Caribbean islands collectively submitted a project to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for capacity building in adaptation to global climate change, with a particular focus on sealevel rise. The project commenced in 1997, allowing Saint Lucia to establish a National Climate Change Committee. The project includes the estab-lishment of climate and sealevel rise monitoring stations, data management and administration, economic valuation of coastal resources and formulation of climate change adaptation policies on national and regional bases.

Climate change and sealevel rise (Chapter I of the Barbados Programme of Action)
• Regional institutions and technical cooperation (Chapter XI of the BPoA)

•Climate and sealevel monitoring station was established at marine docks in Castries. Temperature change, sealevel rise, barometric pressure, wind speed and wind direction are being measured. The monitoring station has proved quite beneficial to the island, especially in Phase II of the Northwest Coastal Conservation Project.
• Computer equipment has also been obtained by the Meteorological
Office to assist in accessing the information. It is the plan of CPACC to train meteorological officers in the use of the data.
• Fifty Saint Lucians selected from the non-governmental, private and public sectors were trained in data collection, the use of the Internet, conversion and automation and metadata creation. Participants received the necessary text and software to accompany training.
• Training sessions have allowed participants from the non-governmental, public and private sectors who are responsible for data to be better informed of each other’s capabilities in this area while assisting them in establishing networking relationships with each other.
• Local consultants prepared the issues paper for national consultation, that involved non-governmental and public and private sector organizations. In this way, a greater number of agencies, including the Saint Lucia Insurance Council and the Chamber of Commerce, were sensitized to the impact of global climate change.
• Through the preparation of the Issues Paper, synergies between
the Paper and the National Emergency Organisation Disaster Management Plan were discovered.
• Brochures on the project and the impacts of global climate change to Saint Lucia have been disseminated to the general public.
• Through participation in the pilot component of the Economic Valuation of Coastal Resources, economists working in the public sector have been sensitized to the need to take a more sustainable approach to development.
• Participants in the training sessions have recognized the importance
of establishing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in their work places.

• Regional projects can be very beneficial at a national level as long as local participants are involved in the process.
• The annual regional and national focal point meetings enhance the understanding local participants have of the process.
• Multidisciplinary or multi-sectoral teams are vital to the success
of the project locally.
• Training should always be targeted at the non-governmental, private and public sectors.
• The training sessions can be used as a means of public sensitization of the regional project.

Ms. Anita James
Ministry of Agriculture
Castries
Saint Lucia
Tel.: (758) 4502484
Fax: (758) 4502287
E-mail: wrmu@slumaffe.org

Mr. Bishnu Tulsie
Chief Sustainable Development Officer
Sustainable Development and Environment Unit
Ministry of Planning
Tel.: (758) 4518746
Fax: (758) 4516958
E-mail: bishnu-sde@candw.lc