sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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Compounding the issue is a lack of financial, technological and legislative national capacities for
managing wastewater pollution (United Nations, <strong>20</strong>10b). The primary sources of marine litter in the
Caribbean region are land-based sources (91.7%) (from municipal solid waste, sewage, etc.) and oceanbased
sources (8.3%) (Smith, <strong>20</strong>10). Unmanaged waste from the tourism sector places an additional
burden on small islands’ disposal and treatment facilities. Rising consumption is increasing waste
streams, which carry hazardous wastes such as electronic, chemical and radioactive wastes. Improper or
unsafe disposal of hazardous industrial waste represents a huge social and environmental cost for SIDS,
exacting a heavy toll on human health, water resources, air quality and biodiversity (Smith, <strong>20</strong>10). Some
current methods for combating waste issues while addressing energy concerns have resulted in countries,
such as the Bahamas and Jamaica, looking at waste-to-energy facilities (Smith, <strong>20</strong>10).
Many SIDS have implemented specific legislation and systems to improve waste management,
but their progress has been limited by a lack of financial support, incentives for assuming social costs and
a shortage of technical capacity and infrastructure. As a result of these economic shortfalls, and despite
international conventions banning dumping, there has been increased accumulation of known and
unidentified toxins and chemicals (ECLAC, <strong>20</strong>10c).
Several countries do not even have regulations on dumping, and inventories of chemicals are in
some cases critically incomplete. For example, a <strong>20</strong>03 study on hazardous waste in Trinidad and Tobago
conducted by the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute found that obsolete pesticides had been stored
in severely damaged containers in private laboratories, ports, agrochemical workshops and sugar cane
production facilities (ECLAC, <strong>20</strong>10c). In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) initiated the Programme on the Prevention and Disposal of Obsolete Pesticides, to provide
expertise and increase awareness regarding the disposal of obsolete pesticide stockpiles and lists seven
different countries in the subregion with pesticide stocks since the program began in 1994. 12 Several
factors have allowed this problem to persist: lack of inventories; lack of adequate storage; lack of special
installations and lack of regulations or fulfilment of various international conventions related to chemical
substances (i.e. Rotterdam, Basel, Stockholm). Again, Caribbean SIDS cite financial and capacity
constraints as the main barriers to action (Williams, <strong>20</strong>07).
6. Coastal and marine resources and biodiversity
As noted in the Mauritius Strategy, SIDS are defined by their historical, cultural and economic links to
the oceans and seas. Caribbean countries’ heavy reliance on the resources of the coastal areas and marine
environment of the Caribbean Sea has resulted in strong interaction and competition for the use of these
resources. Several SIDS have developed coastal zone management plans to minimize the degradation of
marine and coastal environments caused by land-based activities and climate change. As a result of
national and international efforts, the average proportion of marine protected areas (MPAs) has steadily
increased in SIDS (UNDESA, <strong>20</strong>10a), but only a small percentage of these MPAs have a developed
management plan (UNEP, <strong>20</strong>10). One recent initiative for more marine protection is the Caribbean
Challenge, which was endorsed in the Liliendaal Declaration on Climate Change and Development by
CARICOM Heads of State and Government at the Thirtieth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads
of Government of the Caribbean Community, held in Liliendaal, Guyana, in <strong>20</strong>09 (CARICOM, <strong>20</strong>09).
The Challenge’s goal is to protect at least <strong>20</strong>% of the Caribbean’s marine and coastal habitats by <strong>20</strong><strong>20</strong>.
12
See [online] www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPP/Pesticid/Disposal/en/index.html [date of reference: November <strong>20</strong>11].