Port of Spain, September 23, 2020 – Environmental civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Caribbean are eager to see a first-of-its-kind, people-centred environmental treaty—the Escazú Agreement—enter into force.
With the support and guidance of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), four of those organisations—the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation based in Jamaica, the Saint Lucia National Trust, the Environmental Awareness Group based in Antigua and Barbuda and the Newcastle Bay Foundation based in St. Kitts and Nevis—are leading a sustained effort in support of the Agreement and calling for the Governments of their nations to take immediate action to ratify and move towards implementing the treaty.
The Escazú Agreement is a regional treaty which supports public access to timely information about environmental projects, public participation in environmental decision making, guaranteed protections for environmental defenders, and access to justice in environmental matters for Latin American and Caribbean citizens. These provisions are what makes this Agreement, as the first environmental treaty developed in the region, especially attractive to leading environmental CSOs.
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Photo: Members of civil society organisations at the who attended the Escazú Agreement workshop, “People Protecting our Planet” on July 23, 2019 at the Lloyd Best Institute, Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago. PHOTO BY CANARI.