BASSETERRE, St Kitts – St Kitts and Nevis joined other Caribbean nations who adopted the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNCCD), in The Bahamas from 8-9 August 2024 to discuss a two-fold agenda that served as a Preparatory Conference of Parties, ahead of the sixteenth session of the Conference of Parties (COP16) as well as to strategize on achieving Land Degradation Neutrality in each member state.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development participated as the lead agency on behalf of the government of St Kitts and Nevis. Permanent Secretary Sherilita “Shez” Dore-Tyson, on behalf of the Minister responsible, The Hon Dr Joyelle Clarke, gave an intervention surrounding tackling critical issues like drought, land degradation, sandstorms and climate change impacts on Small Island Developing States like St Kitts and Nevis during the Ministerial hosted by The Partnership Initiative on Sustainable Land Management (PISLM).
In her remarks, Dore-Tyson called for research support to adequately combat the troubling effects of sandstorms in the region. Additional calls for support from African countries where the sandstorms originate were made, banking on their experience that would help with the development of a regional framework geared towards resisting the occurrence.
She said, “We are committed to working with our fellow Ministries responsible for UNCCD through purposeful discussions and actions as we venture forward together and develop the regional framework geared towards combating the phenomena of land degradation, drought/flooding and sandstorms while building resilience against their devastating impacts.”
Further, PS Dore-Tyson disclosed several national ongoing projects aimed at mitigating climatic shocks and promoting a more sustainable environment including: –
The Integrating Water, Land and Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (IWECO) project seeks to integrate water, land, and ecosystems management.
The project titled, “Improving Environmental Management through Sustainable Land Management in St. Kitts and Nevis” is geared towards the transformation of degraded forest landscapes into biodiversity and climate-friendly areas as well as the promotion of sustainable agricultural/agro-forestry production.
Previously, The Government of St Kitts and Nevis, through the Department of Environment, participated in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (CSIDS) multi-country soil management initiative for integrated Landscape Restoration and climate-resilient food systems that was held in Trinidad and Tobago in July 2024.
This project, dubbed SoilCare Phase 2, served as an inception workshop as well as a pre-COP Technical meeting that focused on soil conservation and analysis, enhancing rural livelihoods through improved market readiness of priority value chains which speaks to the CARICOM 25 x 25 initiative.
COP16 will be held in Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 13 December 2024.