Immediate threats: climate change, sargassum seaweed, lionfish invasion, coastal erosion
The protection and preservation of the Caribbean Sea, including threats from climate change, sargassum seaweed, lionfish invasion and coastal erosion, were discussed during the VII Summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) held June 4 in Havana, Cuba.
In 2006, ACS established a Caribbean Sea Commission to promote and oversee the sustainable use of the Caribbean Sea. The theme of this year’s summit is, “Together for a Sustainable Caribbean.”
The theme reflects the hard work, priority and dedication of the ACS in achieving sustainable development throughout the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Greater Caribbean Region. The Havana Summit is a continuation of joint efforts to revitalize the vision of the ACS for a stronger and more united Greater Caribbean as well as to promote sustainability, as was expressed in the Declaration of Petion-Ville, Haiti, of April 13, 2013.
“The map of global, political and economic influence is slowly shifting,” Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris told the attendees. “The ACS must remain significant as a regional bloc, whose competencies are extremely important for our development and human survival. The pillars of the ACS are central to our human development goals and take into account the challenges and vulnerabilities of the Greater Caribbean.”
He said, “Cooperation has long been a driving factor within the Greater Caribbean” and has been demonstrated in efforts at regional integration in areas including transport, health, natural disasters, education, trade and culture.
The Prime Minister said climate change presents a real threat to SIDS, like St. Kitts and Nevis, and that in order to combat it, there is need for concerted effort on the part of the Region.
“The adverse effects of climate change will only retard the advances we have already made in agriculture, threaten food security, cripple our efforts to eradicate hunger and poverty and achieve sustainable development,” the Prime Minister said. “The onus is on us, to mitigate the destructive effects now, so that we can do less damage control later.”
Prime Minister Harris said that although the challenges we face are many and somewhat similar in nature, “It is only through a shared vision, strong resolve and collaborative approach that we as a region can and will transcend our limitations to surmount the many difficulties and dangers that obstruct our development and undermine our sovereignty.”
He urged Latin America and the Caribbean to pool its wide spectrum of resources together for “the good of all our peoples.”
The prime minister’s delegation includes the Honourable Mark Brantley, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Osbert DeSuza, Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister; Mr. Duncan Wattley, Director in the Department of People’s Empowerment; Ms. Sonia Boddie, Foreign Service Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Mrs. Verna Morris-Mills, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Chargé d’affaires in Cuba.
The Summit will see the departure of Secretary General, His Excellency Alfonso David Múnera Cavadía, from Colombia, who served the Association from 2012 and whose four year tenure of office will end in June 2016. A new Secretary General, in the person of Dr. June Soomer, from St. Lucia, will head the ACS for the next four years; she will take up the position from August 1, 2016.
All Association of Caribbean States (CARICOM) member states were represented at the Summit including Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. Its Associate Members are Aruba, Curacao, (France on behalf of French Guiana, Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin), Guadeloupe, Martinique, Sint Maarten, (The Netherlands on behalf of Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius), Turks and Caicos.
