Do you know what RAMSAR, CITES, CBD and SPAW are? They sound kind of like that bacterial bug at the KHMH but actually, these are environmental agreements that the Government of Belize and other Caribbean countries have signed unto. But due to a lack of funding and political will these agreements are never really brought into force in domestic law, or what the policy wonks, call mainstreaming. That's the subject of a three-day training workshop on what are called Multilateral Environmental Agreements. We found out more from the Chief Environmental Officer.
Martin Allegria - Cheif Environmental Officer
"The objective here today is to build capacity in these institutions to become more conscious and aware of these Multi-lateral agreements or conventions and how to incorporate these into the developmental plans of Belize."
Dr. Therese Yarde - CARICOM Secretariat
"And the value of mainstreaming especially to this small country is that Belize and many other countries in the Caribbean Community has signed on to a lot of agreements and the more you sign on to it the harder it is for you to implement. So what mainstreaming does is tighten it up together."
Martin Allegria
"So that we can start to plan for and enforce thereafter these other conventions that largely have been ignored for many reasons."
Jules Vasquez
"How would you answer the criticism that small and developing nations such as these that will be assembled here are trying to figure out ways to mainstream these agreements while large nations - China and the USA haven't signed on to a lot of these protocols and they are the culpable ones."
Martin Allegria
"Yes you can say that"
Dr. Therese Yarde
"I think it's especially worth it for small countries because not withstanding that some other countries may not have signed on to many of the agreements. The point of the agreement that it helps us to protect our environment in our own countries so regardless of what any other bigger country is doing we have to do what is good for our country and to protect our environment."
Martin Allegria
"Yes your points of view are correct but we keep the other 187 or 190 nations - we continue to basically put in our little two cents in order for there to have some form of awareness by these countries that you mentioned that they should join us. Slowly but surely they are coming around and knowing that the earth is only so much it can withstand and after that you'll see the wrath of mother nature and we are beginning to see that in terms of the climate change issue because at the end of the day these developing nations and even us that are developing. We are now conscious that the main objective of environmental protection is the survival of human beings - not saving the lizards, parrot or snail. There are reasons why those specifics being targeted in terms of survival of human kind at the end of the day."
The workshop considers four agreements, the Convention on Biological Diversity known as CBD, the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife in the Wider Caribbean known as SPAW, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora known as CITES and the Convention on Wetlands known as Ramsar.
The workshops are being held in African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries.
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