Having ratified the CBD in 1996, Trinidad and Tobago was obliged under Article 6 of the Convention to develop a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). A multi-sectoral task force, comprising stakeholders from government, CBOs, NGOs, research institutions, and UNDP, and chaired by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) was appointed to oversee the NBSAP project.
The task force established a Project Team, which comprised a team leader, project assistant and six sector specialists in the areas of flora, fauna, agriculture, coastal and marine biodiversity/fisheries, tourism, and industrial and environmental management. Sector specialists were charged with the responsibility of assessing and analysing each sector’s impact on biodiversity and it conservation. This stocktaking exercise commenced the consultative process for the development of the NBSAP.
The consultative process was designed to be highly participatory in nature, and toward this end it involved a series of sensitisation sessions and workshops over a period of eleven months. In October 1998, orientation sessions were held for the task force, the project team, environmental officers from all the ministries, selected stakeholders (including NGOs and CBOs), and secretaries of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). In January 1999, one-day informational and sensitization sessions were conducted for parliamentarians, government ministers, senators, permanent secretaries, and secretaries of the THA. In February and March, twelve contact group workshops were held with stakeholders from each sector, including NGOs, CBOs, business and corporate sectors, ministry personnel, private enterprise, and other individuals contacted by the sector specialists in the assessment and information gathering phase. Each report was reviewed by its stakeholder group. In May, background information on the NBSAP and the priority issues from the contact group workshops were incorporated into an issues report booklet and circulated through a series of thirteen public consultations. Ideas, suggestions and recommendations from the sector specialists’ reports, contact group workshops and public consultations were then integrated to address the strategies and actions that the State should adopt in planning for the sustainable use and management of its biodiversity strategies. Finally, the national public consultation was held in August 1999. More than 100 persons attended, including representatives of NGOs, CBOs, the media, ministries and government agencies, stakeholder organisations, the political directorate, and tertiary education and research institutions.
For more information, contact Mr. Alvin Pascal at alvinpascal@hotmail.com. For more information on the NBSAP process, see the case study following Guideline 14(b)
, above.