Proposal for GEF Funding
National Capacity Needs Self-Assessment for Global Environmental Management
Country name: Antigua and Barbuda
Project Title: National Capacity Needs Self-Assessment for Global Environmental Management
GEF Implementing Agency: UNEP
GEF Operational Focal Point: Diann Black-Layne
Chief Environment Officer, Environment Division
Ministry of Tourism and Environment
National Executing Agency: The Environment Division
Ministry of Tourism and Environment
Country Eligibility: Antigua and Barbuda is eligible for funding under paragraph 9 (b) of the instrument and meets all other eligibility requirements for GEF funding.
Convention participation:
Convention / Date of Ratification/Accession / National Focal PointUNCBD / 2000 / Dr. John Ashe
Ambassador for Sustainable Development matters
New York Mission
UNFCCC / 1998 / Brian Challenger
Technical Consultant
Ministry of Public Utilities and Aviation
UNCCD / June 6th 1997 / Diann Black-Layne
Chief Environment Officer
Environment Division Ministry of Tourism and Environment
GEF Financing: USD 193,000
Government Contribution: USD 71,000
Estimated Total Budget: USD 264,000
Estimated Starting Date: January 2003
Duration: 12 – 16 months
List of Acronyms
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CBH Central Board of Health
CBO Community Based Organisation
CDI Capacity Development Initiative
CEHI Caribbean Environmental Health Institute
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
CPACC Caribbean Programme for Adaptation to Climate Change
DCA Development Control Authority
EAG Environmental Awareness Group
EMA Environmental Management Act
EMS Environment Management Strategy
GEF Global Environment Facility
MAL&F Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries
MTE Ministry of Tourism and the Environment
NAP National Action Programme
NBSAP National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
NCM National Co-ordinating Mechanism for Environmental Conventions
NCSA National Capacity Self-Assessment
NEA National Executing Agency
NPC National Project Co-ordinator
NRMU Natural Resources Management Unit (OECS)
NSWMA National Solid Waste Management Authority
OECS Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States
ROLAC Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
SIDS Small Island Developing State
TAC Technical Advisory Committee
UNCBD United Nations Convention on Biodiversity
UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
UNEP United National Environment Programme
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Introduction
1. Antigua and Barbuda is typical of so many SIDS where its national development and management are driven and affected by factors external to the country. Due to the country’s size these factors tend to have immediate effects thus making the country extremely vulnerable to global environmental problems. In an effort to reduce its vulnerability to external and national concerns, Antigua and Barbuda like many other SIDS must expend a disproportional higher amount of resources than much larger countries. The vulnerability of Antigua and Barbuda to climate change coupled with the high cost of environmental management makes the development an approach to capacity building for Antigua and Barbuda an important and crucial exercise.
2. The ability of Antigua and Barbuda to address external environmental problems is limited if only conducted on a national basis. Like many other countries that participated in the Rio 1992, the country has recognised that a multilateral approach is best and has signed three main conventions emanating from that process, namely the UNFCCC, UNCBD, and UNCCD. Each of these conventions clearly outlines the respective commitments of parties, including development of action plans, capacity building and reporting.
3. Notwithstanding the high cost of environmental management in islands, Antigua and Barbuda is determined to the meet its commitments to the MEAs that it is a party to. To this end the GEF is requested to assist Antigua and Barbuda to design a national capacity building strategy that will provide a guide to the development of the country’s capacity to effectively and efficiently management the environment while meeting its international obligations. This exercise will be a country driven process that will take into consideration the special characteristics of a SIDS and well as the need for stakeholder participation. To ensure that there is effective stakeholder participation this process will follow the guidelines provided within the operational strategy of the GEF, and those for the NCSA specifically
4. The project will be executed by the Environment Division within the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, and is expected to be completed within a sixteen-month period. The Ministry will be working with all relevant government agencies, national NGOs, UNEP (as the GEF implementing agency), and to some extent other countries, to ensure the successful and timely completion of this project. The final output of this process is expected to be a national capacity building strategy to be implemented by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda.
1. Background, Context and Related Work
Environmental Context
5. In general Antigua and Barbuda has limited mineral resources and no petroleum based reserves, however the country is blessed with a rich diversity of natural resources whose interactions form the basis for the country’s culture and economy. Being the largest of all the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, Antigua, and its sister island of Barbuda, are home to a number of unique species. The biodiversity is unique due to geographic isolation and environmental difference, which have played an important role in evolution of the species. A list a range of species found on the island including globally significant threatened, rare or endangered fauna common to Antigua and Barbuda is found in annex 6.
6. A wide range of coastal and marine habitats is represented within the country including coral reefs, seagrass beds, lagoons, beaches and mangrove forests. These habitats support many globally rare fauna such as marine turtles, and corals. Given the small size of the islands these marine habitats are generally located in close proximity to terrestrial habitats including lowland tropical forests, xeric formations and montane forests. Although these terrestrial environments are relatively depauperate in terms of absolute numbers of species, they harbour a significant variety of restricted-range species, particularly birds.
7. Threats to the environment are mainly due to human activities as well as natural disasters[1]. The loss of habitat to housing and tourism development is the greatest threat to biodiversity, while a legacy of historically poor agricultural practices and roaming livestock is the major cause of land degradation. Over the past ten years extreme climatic conditions such as droughts and hurricanes have wrecked havoc on the coast resulting in significant erosion and loss of built structures. It is anticipated that these threats will continue to be the most significant in the management of the local and global environment. Pollution also presents a continuous threat to the marine and terrestrial environment mainly as a result of excessive nutrients or sewage discharge into coastal waters. Coral reefs are severely stressed not only due to poor water quality but also due to over fishing and exposure to hurricanes.
8. In response to these threats the Government has taken steps to review national environmental legislation and institutional arrangements in an effort to best manage the natural resources of the country. In addition steps have been taken to protect nationally and globally significant resources and to provide guidelines for the sustainable use of natural resources. Notwithstanding the initiatives taken by the government however, environmental problems related to climate change and land degradation is proving to be far too difficult for the country to address alone.
9. Environmental problems tend to be regionally very similar in the Caribbean since the islands have a similar history of development[2]. Differences in country profiles are generally due to the variances in topography of the islands. There are significant differences however between countries in terms of their environmental priorities, institutional structure, available finance and progress made in the implementation of the conventions.
Socio-Economic Context
10. Antigua and Barbuda like many other Caribbean countries has a historic agricultural economy dependent on sugar and rum. These activities left a legacy of deforestation leading to erosion, watershed damage and species extinction. Under colonial rule, the island was virtually cleared of forests by the 1760’s. Over the past three decades the economy has changed from a dependency on agriculture to that of a service-based economy, mainly tourism, which although less environmentally damaging, has its own challenges and issues.
11. Tourism has been the single most important factor in the recent development of the economy of Antigua and Barbuda and is now responsible for approximately 60% of the GDP. The growth of GDP over the period 1985 to 1998 has clearly followed the fortunes of the tourist industry. The damaging effect of hurricanes Luis and Georges was significant, both on tourism and the overall economy. During the period, the most important developments have been the construction of marinas and boating related facilities and the relative growth of cruise ship tourism. Other economic activities that contribute to the country’s development includes the financial sector, construction, fisheries and agriculture.
National Environmental Strategies and Legislation
12. The existing legislative framework consists of some forty-pieces of legislation governing various aspects of the environment in Antigua and Barbuda, much of which are intended to address the country’s environmental problems and meet commitments to the MEAs. This fragmented legislation has made environmental management almost impossible, and has not been effective in addressing environmental problems. Key legislation with relevance to environmental management is summarised in Annex 4.
13. Since Antigua and Barbuda’s signing of the Rio conventions there has been a fragmented approached to the implementation of the country’s commitments. Over the past five years the country has produced many sector policies and action plans that addresses various aspects of environmental concerns. The resulting situation is similar to that of legislation where there are many action plans and programmes with no mechanism to ensure cohesion and or consistency. This situation coupled with weak co-ordination makes the approach to environmental management very difficult. Recognising the functional inefficiency of developing comprehensive strategies for each convention (or thematic areas), Antigua and Barbuda has begun to take steps to develop national strategies and legislation based on a synergistic approach.
Environmental Management Strategy (EMS)
14. National strategies produced over the past four years include sector based strategies -including agriculture, trade, biodiversity, health and tourism; and cross-sectoral policies - including the National hazard Mitigation Plan, and the National Physical Development Plan. Although all of these strategies have identified concrete synergies for the implementation of the conventions, it has also been recognised that there is a need for the development of an environmental management strategy that is specifically geared towards the integration of existing development policies, plans and strategies in operation within Antigua and Barbuda, as well as synergies inherent in the various conventions. To this end the Government of Antigua and Barbuda has undertaken to develop a comprehensive environmental management strategy (EMS) based on the St. George’s Declaration (see below). The EMS will serve as the management strategy governing the implementation of all environment and sustainable development conventions to which Antigua and Barbuda is party.
Environment Management Act (EMA)
15. Recognising the functional shortcomings of ratification without integration into the existing legislation, the Environment Division through the assistance of United Nations Environment Programme/Regional Office Latin America and the Caribbean (UNEP/ROLAC) has initiated the development of an umbrella environmental legislation. This new legislation will not only guide development initiatives and solve the problem of fragmentation, but will also provide a statutory link of the conventions to functioning statutory instruments. The legislation is expected to be completed in 2003 for submission to Parliament in early 2004.
16. This process of development of the Act will be included as an integral part of the development of the NCSA process. The development of the Act will be funded by the Government and UNEP/ROLAC and will be a major part of the co-financing for the NCSA activity.
St. George’s Declaration for Environmental Sustainability
17. Based on the tenants of the SIDS plan of action, the St. George’s Declaration was developed among the OECS[3] member states with the distinct purpose of rationalising the sustainable development process in the context of the Caribbean and SIDS. Participating countries have been mandated to develop National Environmental Management Strategies based on the St. George’s Declaration to further this process.
National Environmental Institutions
18. Antigua and Barbuda has several agencies that have been allocated responsibilities for aspects of environmental issues. As with environmental legislation, the institutional arrangements for the management of environment and the implementation of the MEAs has been developed in a fragmented manner. The pressing needs to develop the country, the resulting environmental degradation, and the recognition of lost economic opportunities led to the government creating a new agency to provide a single depository of environmental information and the co-ordination of national and international environmental policy.
19. The Environment Division was created in 1996 to carry out the following responsibilities:
§ Produce a state of the Environment report, every two years. This report should give comprehensive information on the health of the environment including impacts upon human health, i.e. water, and air pollution, and chemicals in food.
§ Produce a comprehensive natural resource map. This map will identify major areas of importance to the health of the environment. These include watersheds, coral reef, mangroves, forest and protected areas. This map may also be used for natural resource management, physical planning and tax collection purposes.
§ Develop and implement a national environmental awareness program. This will include the introduction of environmental education into the school curriculum
§ Develop and implement projects related to the rehabilitation and protection of the environment.
§ Identify and co-ordinate the implementation of Antigua and Barbuda’s commitments to international environmental agreements. This includes co-ordinating the implementation of the recommendations, and the National Co-ordinating Mechanism (NCM) for environmental conventions.
§ Co-ordinate the development of environmental legislation in all areas of environmental management.
§ Develop and implement a program of beautification the major highways of the country.