DOMINICA: Ministers of Government of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States responsible for environmental sustainability met in Dominica on Wednesday and will continue into Thursday this week.
High on the agenda is a discussion on lessons from Tropical Storm Erika.
GIS News spoke with Hon. Minister for the Environment, Dr. Kenneth Darroux on Tuesday, May 3rd.
He said, ahead of the ministerial meeting, discussions will take place with technical teams which will make recommendations on agenda matters.
The regional officials will also discuss post-COP21 activities.
“We will see a number of presentations from experts in the sub-region…on climate change. We are going to look at the post COP 21 strategic actions and sustainable development goals.
“The issue of sargassum, the seaweed that is affecting our waters will also be addressed as well as water resource and drought management.
“Later down we will look at disaster risk reduction which is important coming from Tropical Storm Erika to see how we, at the sub-regional level, can be better equipped to deal with disasters. The issues of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), mapping these systems and ICT for use in disaster preparedness,” he listed.
Another key area of discussion is resource mobilisation and economic opportunities available for OECS states.
“We cannot help but continue talking about the tab which Tropical Storm Erika left us and the issue of our resources to be mobilized and [organized for climate change mitigation].”
