St Kitts and Nevis: To adequately manage the environment for later life and survival, the Department of Environment in St. Kitts and Nevis centres on three broad pillars, namely climate change, biodiversity, and ozone.
Climate Change is the variations in climate patterns that influence all sectors and human life; biodiversity deals with natural resources – plants, animals, and humans, whereas, ozone deals with the halting of those refrigerants that damage the ozone layer.
“After those three pillars then there are sub-sections inside these important focus sectors, acknowledging that most of the Multilateral United Nations Agreements – the talking point inside these powers lie with the official department,” said Cheryl Jeffers, Conservation Officer in the Ministry of Environment and Cooperatives, during a presentation on ‘Working for You’ on December 2, 2020. “I believe it was strategically done that way to guarantee that there is the coordination, effectiveness, and avoiding duplication of those obligations.”
Ms Jeffers saw at the department’s slogan: “Conserve, Preserve and Protect.” She remarked that it fittingly sums up the duties of the office.
“In terms of protection… we see individually as coordinating some of the exercises because we cannot do it solely. It needs us to have that level of collaboration and deliberation with everyone – civil society, government, private sector, and children,” she said. “As before-mentioned, most of the task that we do we have an Environmental Education Officer whose, duty, for the most part, is to distribute information as it correlates to the environmental concerns that influence us on a day-to-day base.”
When it comes to preparedness, Ms Jeffers said the department employs in quite a lot to elevate the need to preserve what is there in terms of natural resources. “In terms of preparedness, we do a lot, including when it comes to water, water conservation manners.”
The Central Forest Reserve comprises all lands beyond the 1000 feet silhouette. Ms Jeffers told it is essential to guard the area because that is where largest of the island’s resources are located.
“In terms of protection, our principal area for that links to our Central Forest Reserve, which is preserved by law. It is carried out because most of our water is produced through that practice in terms of the Central Forest Reserve, and the administration saw it required for us to implement such a scheme to guarantee that the level of sustainability in times of the forest is defended,” she stated.
Ms Jeffers figured that it assists in protecting such resources because if you don’t, then persons will easily access and remove or damage natural resources.
