CANARI calls for action following Escazú Agreement implementation

The Caribbean Nat­ur­al Re­sources In­sti­tute (CA­NARI) is call­ing for ac­tion fol­low­ing the en­try in­to force of the Es­cazú Agree­ment in Trinidad and To­ba­go on April 27.

In a me­dia re­lease, CA­NARI said the agree­ment marks a step to­ward strength­en­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal gov­er­nance and pro­tect­ing the right to a safe and healthy en­vi­ron­ment.

The agree­ment, for­mal­ly ti­tled the Re­gion­al Agree­ment on Ac­cess to In­for­ma­tion, Pub­lic Par­tic­i­pa­tion and Ac­cess to Jus­tice in En­vi­ron­men­tal Mat­ters in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, es­tab­lish­es stan­dards for ac­cess to en­vi­ron­men­tal in­for­ma­tion, pub­lic par­tic­i­pa­tion and ac­cess to jus­tice.

CA­NARI said the treaty al­so ad­dress­es the recog­ni­tion, pro­tec­tion and sup­port of en­vi­ron­men­tal de­fend­ers.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion ac­knowl­edged state­ments made by Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment Dr Kennedy Swarats­ingh re­gard­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion on the agree­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, Dr Swarats­ingh stat­ed that ac­ces­sion to the agree­ment rep­re­sents “a clear and de­lib­er­ate com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal gov­er­nance, pro­mot­ing trans­paren­cy and en­sur­ing that all cit­i­zens have a mean­ing­ful voice in en­vi­ron­men­tal de­ci­sion-mak­ing.”

CA­NARI said the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment must now be sup­port­ed by ac­tion.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion stat­ed that im­ple­men­ta­tion of the agree­ment re­quires im­prove­ments in how in­for­ma­tion is shared, how de­ci­sions are made and how jus­tice is ac­cessed.

CA­NARI al­so said the pro­vi­sions of the agree­ment are im­por­tant for com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed by en­vi­ron­men­tal is­sues.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion not­ed Dr Swarats­ingh’s state­ment that im­ple­men­ta­tion “is not a soli­tary ef­fort” and wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ten­tion to work with civ­il so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions and re­gion­al part­ners.

CA­NARI said it is pre­pared to sup­port the Gov­ern­ment and con­tin­ue col­lab­o­ra­tion with civ­il so­ci­ety groups, com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions and stake­hold­ers to im­ple­ment the agree­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the or­gan­i­sa­tion be­lieves the prin­ci­ples of the agree­ment must re­sult in mea­sur­able changes in peo­ple’s lives.

CA­NARI al­so stat­ed that im­ple­men­ta­tion will re­quire po­lit­i­cal sup­port, re­sources and pub­lic par­tic­i­pa­tion.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion added that the suc­cess of the agree­ment should be mea­sured by out­comes re­lat­ed to en­vi­ron­men­tal de­ci­sion-mak­ing and its im­pact on peo­ple and the en­vi­ron­ment.