Caribean R

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Preparatory Meeting of the Caribbean Sub-region
leading to the WSSD, Johannesburg
Havana, Cuba June 28-29, 2001
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The Subregional Preparatory Meeting of the
Caribbean for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development was convened by the Director of the
Subregional Headquarter for the Caribbean of the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean and the Director of the Regional
Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the
United Nations Environment Programme
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Representatives of the following States
members in the sub-region participated in the
meeting Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize,
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana,
Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and
Suriname.The following associate members of
ECLAC were also represented Montserrat,
Netherlands Antilles and United States Virgin
Islands.A representative of Indonesia attended
as an observer in a consultative capacity.
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The meeting was also attended by
representatives of UN DESA, UNDP, WMO,
WHO/PAHO.In addition, the meeting was attended
by representatives of the following
intergovernmental organizations Caribbean
Community (CARICOM), Caribbean Development Bank
(CDB), European Union, Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States (OECS) and the World Bank.
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Representatives of non-governmental
organizations included several Cuban NGOs,
Caribbean Conservation Association, COHPEDA,
Earth Council. Representatives of the Institute
of Marine Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago and of
the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme
attended the meeting as special guests.  
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It was stated at the meeting that a number of
countries had experienced difficulties in
drafting their national reports due to a shortage
of financial and human resources. It was noted
that various agencies that were active in the
subregion, together with countries that had
already completed their reports (Barbados and
Cuba), could assist those countries that had not
yet been able to do so and thus help ensure that
all the delegations would have their reports
ready prior to the Regional Preparatory
Conference. The lack of the majority of national
reports was undoubtedly an important
limitation for the expected outcomes of the
Meeting.  
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Nevertheless the Governments present at the
Meeting agreed to adopt a Contribution that
served as an important input to the Regional
Latin-American and Caribbean Preparatory Meeting
held in October 2001 in Rio de Janeiro and
provide a good basis for discussions in this
Inter-regional AOSIS Meeting.
Following you can find some of the key issues and
priorities stated by the Caribbean SIDS in this
Contribution
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 The Caribbean Governments represented at the
Meeting reaffirmed . The objectives of the Rio
Declaration and Agenda 21, the Declaration and
PoA of Barbados on sustainable development of
SIDS , as well as the Decisions of the Forum of
Environment Ministers of Latin America and
Caribbean.. The consolidation of sustainable
development national policies, strengthening the
institutions, improving legal framework, speeding
up the introduction of an environmental dimension
to economic and social develpment  . The role
all mayor groups have to play in sustainable
development.
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. Their concern regarding deterioration of the
sub-regions marine and coastal ecosystems,
watersheds, and loss of biological diversity..
Globalization has not produced equal benefits and
developing countries have not been able to take
full advantage of the opportunities offered by
this process.. That the process of world trade
liberalization shall take place under conditions
of changing inadequate production and consumption
patterns and elimination of unequal terms of
trade and external debt of developing
countries.. The continued economic, social and
environmental vulnerability of the Caribbean SIDS
and the need to define a set of indicators
including a vulnerability index to measure the
problems towards sustainable development
recalling the agreement reached during 22nd
UNGASS on this question.
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. The importance of reduction, mitigation of and
the response to natural disasters and stress the
need of receiving support to reduce vulnerability
and to contribute to adaptation to climate
change.. Health considerations have to be an
integral part of sustainable development plans
and processes.. The need to develop synergies
among MEAs. 
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The Contribution adopted at the Sub regional
Meeting also underlines a set of follow up
actions such as         To recommend that at
Johannesburg 2002, the international community
declares its support and gives its assistance to
the initiative aimed at promoting an integrated
management approach to the Caribbean Sea area in
the context of sustainable development.       
To exhort all States and international
organization to work together towards negotiated
and mutually beneficial solutions to ensure the
implementation of UNFCCC and Kyoto
Protocol.        To recommend that WSSD
reiterate commitment made at UNCED regarding the
availability of adequate, predictable, new and
additional resources as stipulated in chapter 33
of the Agenda 21, and urge that this commitment
be implemented as a matter of urgency.
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      .   To strongly urge the developed
nations to reach the goal accepted by the UN of
giving 0.7 of GDP to ODA.        To agree to
accelerate the national and regional
implementation of the Barbados PoA and to
request for this purpose the support of the
international community as agreed in Agenda 21
and the Barbados PoA.        Strongly
recommending wider promotion of understanding of
interdependence of economic development, social
equality and environmental protection, the
meeting called for greater integration of
policies in these areas at the national,
regional, and international levels.
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      . To extend regional dialog and exchange
in order to strengthen intra-regional
co-operation.         To promote
strengthening of regionalization and an increase
participation by the Forum of Environment
Ministers of Latin America and Caribbean in the
international decision-making process. 
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As requested on the agenda, we would like to
present three ideas that could be further
discussed during this Meeting, and in our opinion
could be considered as a basis for possible
AOSIS initiatives to WSSD 1. SIDS Special
case condition needs to receive a wider
recognition from the international community.
There is a need to find innovative ways of
operationalizing this concept in a broader
context of sustainable development. 2. Capacity
Building for sustainable development trough
strengthening of SIDS SIDS co-operation. The
need to find ways and resources to achieve this
goal. for example, trough the establishment of a
SIDS specific mechanism that provide the
necessary funds to support this kind of
co-operation. 3. Establishment of a Caribbean
Framework for prevention and mitigation of the
natural disasters and Adaptation to Climate
Change.