The BPoA is high on the agenda for the conclave. In April 2002, the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) passed a resolution authorizing an international assembly to appraise the implementation of the BPoA.
Prime Minister Perry Christie will open the meeting which will commence Jan. 26 at the Radisson Cable Beach Hotel.
Other speakers will include Anwarul Chowdry, Secretary General of the Mauritius International Meeting; Rajesh Bhagwan, Minister of the Environment and National Development Unit of Mauritius; Julian Hunte, President of the 58th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and local Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.
Topics to be covered during the meeting will include the implementation of sustainable development strategies; building resilience by developing strategies for overcoming risk, uncertainty and vulnerability in SIDS; enhancing competitiveness in terms of trade, finance, entrepreneurship and partnership; promoting cultural diversity, developing cultural industries and empowering youth.
The Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will sponsor, as a side event, a Youth Focus Bahamas 2004 meeting, under the theme “Youth Vision for Island Living.”
This forum will be held at SuperClub Breezes, Cable Beach on Jan. 28 and 29, 2004.
In this grouping, students from throughout the archipelago will convene and make recommendations to address issues regarding the sustainable development of The Bahamas.
The forum is also intended to engender a greater appreciation by the nation’s youth for the important role they play in the decision making process.
At a press conference held at the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, attended by Minister Marcus Bethel and Ambassador of the Environment Keod Smith, it was promulgated how the implementation of BPoA strategies have helped The Bahamas in the wake of global warming.
Dr. Donald Cooper Undersecretary at the Ministry of Health said each of the agencies of the United Nations take guidance from the governments in their broad-based decisions with regard to the priorities of the world.
He said such priorities are negotiated into international agreements such as those protecting bio-diversity and climate change etc.
The negotiation of Agenda 21, where the concept of Small Island Developing States and their special needs was first articulated opened a window for SIDS to refer to a global mandate he said.
“When we come to negotiate for any matter, we were able to cite the special conditions, special needs and special privileges they had to extend to small island states and write them into every single agreement,” he said.
With regard to bio-diversity matters, Dr. Cooper said The Bahamas has benefited from some $2 million in funding because SIDS was made a special category within the Bio-diversity Conventions.
“Without that privilege, we probably would get nothing out of the Bio-diversity conventions,” he said.
The $2 million said Dr. Cooper, is earmarked for maintaining and protecting the country’s natural ecosystems such as the wetlands.
“Instead of being marshes and swamps, people now view them as wetlands and protect them because in a storm, for example, that is what drains the land. In looking at the bonefishing in The Bahamas and raising that awareness, when they catch bonefish they now release them to catch them again,” he said.
“The sustainable use of the resources, promoting that message, has been one of the key things in which we have utilized the resources, and that has resulted in positive things,” he said.
Adding that the Ministry has also began arranging a catalogue of what makes up the fauna and flora in The Bahamas and linked that with work being carried out at the College of The Bahamas so that Bahamians can study its own natural resources.
“We have also been able to build up a knowledge base through the regulators, NGOs and so on of these types of issues. People’s consciousness have been raised by those activities and that injection of resources and bringing in of people so that they are aware of larger scale issues and are more informed and are able to address them,” he said.
Dr. Cooper said the whole world is competing for those resources.
“It is difficult for The Bahamas to compete with China or Brazil or India to access the resources and assistance however, because of the joining together of the small island states, they are able to negotiate a special part of those funds which are only available to small island states. So The Bahamas does not have to go out and compete in the big pool; there is no disadvantage in being small. You can only have limited expertise if you have limited manpower,” he said.
Minister of Health Senator Dr. Marcus Bethel said the world is very concerned about sustainable development especially in light of the widening disparities between the “haves and the have nots” among the world population.
“The desire is for development to occur in a sustainable fashion in all nations. That requires addressing many issues and not just the ecology and the environment but of course, our trade and industry, commerce, finance and good governance. These are all issues that relate to how countries are able to sustain themselves in the years to come,” he said.
Our land mass is not increasing but the population is he said.
“So we have to feed everybody. All of this business of sustainable development ties in with broader and overarching goals of the United Nations with respect to millennium development goals which include reducing poverty, enhancing education, gender equality. They are all part an involving consciousness globally as it related to making our little world, the earth sustainable into the future for generations to come,” he said.
Vanessa Rolle, The Nassau Guardian
