Chairman's Summary
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Antigua & Barbuda The Bahamas British Virgin Islands Dominican Republic Grenada Jamaica Puerto Rico St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent & the Grenadines Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) Leadership to Provide for the Sustainable Use, Conservation and Effective Management of Marine and Coastal Resources CCI Summit Secretariat Office of the Prime Minister; Government of Grenada Mr. Sheldon Cohen (Coordinator of Secretariat): [email protected]; + (1) 301.717.7976 Ms. Safiya Sawney (Assistant Coordinator of Secretariat): [email protected]; + (1) 473.416.3159 CHAIRMAN’S SUMMARY FIRST SENIOR OFFICIALS MEETING (SOM1) to prepare for the Caribbean Summit of Political and Business Leaders Adopted1 in Kingston, Jamaica on 11 July 2012 by the Governments of: Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines 1 Note: This is not a legally binding document, and the decisions taken at SOM1 will need to be discussed with a broader group of officials within all of the participating governments following this meeting. 1 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The First Senior Officials Meeting (SOM1) of the Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) was held in Kingston, Jamaica from 10 – 11 July 2012. The meeting was co-chaired by Mrs. Genefa Hibbert (Permanent Secretary; Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change; Government of Jamaica) and Mrs. Elizabeth Henry-Greenidge (Permanent Secretary; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Environment, Foreign Trade and Export Development; Government of Grenada). A total of 42 participants from the following ten governments participated in the meeting: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Annex I). Of particular note, the meeting included the following ministers: • Dr. the Hon. Kedrick Pickering (Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources and Labour; Government of the British Virgin Islands) • Hon. Robert Pickersgill (Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change; Government of Jamaica) • Hon. Daniel Galán Kercadó (Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources; Government of Puerto Rico) 2. The objectives of the meeting were: i. Value of marine and coastal resources. To reach a common understanding of the value of the marine and coastal resources of the region, and the threats to these resources. ii. Summit purpose and outcomes. To agree on the overall purpose of the Summit, and more specific desired outcomes. iii. Leaders Declaration. To review a framework for the Leaders Declaration that would be signed at the Summit, and agree on next steps toward producing a first draft. iv. Participation in CCI and Summit. To reach agreement on various participation issues related to the CCI and Summit (covering governments, companies, and partners). v. Summit venues, agenda and dates. To reach agreement on the venue for Part II of the Summit, to reach agreement on dates for the Summit, and to review a framework for the agenda of the Summit, to be further refined. vi. Summit Roadmap. To reach agreement on a Roadmap of activities in the lead-up to the Summit that can help to facilitate successful outcomes. vii. Public awareness. To agree on concrete steps to raise public awareness through media efforts around the Summit and marine / coastal resource issues generally. II. OPENING OF THE MEETING 3. The meeting was opened by the Co-Chairs: Permanent Secretary Genefa Hibbert (Jamaica) and Permanent Secretary Elizabeth Henry-Greenidge (Grenada). In their opening remarks, the co- chairs welcomed all of the participants to this first Senior Officials Meeting to begin preparations for the Summit of Political and Business Leaders that will be held next year in the British Virgin Islands, to launch a second phase of the Caribbean Challenge Initiative. In addition, they emphasized the potential for the Summit to achieve important – even historic – outcomes that can benefit the marine and coastal environment and the people of this region. The SOM1 meeting was described as a first step towards achieving such outcomes, with the hope that bold and ambitious steps could be agreed upon at this meeting. 4. The participating governments approved the provisional agenda without revisions (see Annex II). 2 5. The keynote address was provided by Hon. Robert Pickersgill (Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change in Jamaica). 6. Following the keynote address, each participating government made a presentation of its current activities related to sustainable management of the marine and coastal environment. 7. During the presentation by the Government of Puerto Rico, the Hon. Daniel Galán Kercadó announced his government’s formal endorsement of the Caribbean Challenge Initiative, including the “20 by 20” target (i.e. to effectively conserve at least 20% of their near-shore marine / coastal environment by 2020). The Co-Chairs and all participating governments warmly welcomed Puerto Rico to the Caribbean Challenge Initiative. 8. Professor Dale Webber of the University of the West Indies provided an overview entitled “State of the Caribbean’s Marine and Coastal Environment”. III. DECISIONS 9. Having expressed their gratitude to the Government of Jamaica for hosting the first Senior Officials Meeting (SOM1) in their country and providing support for the meeting, the participants adopted the following decisions: SESSION #1: CURRENT SITUATION Decision #1: New subtitle for the Caribbean Challenge Initiative AGREE that a new subtitle “Leadership to provide for the sustainable use, conservation and effective management of marine and coastal resources” will be added in order to make the name of this Initiative more intuitive, and that this new subtitle will be used in future correspondences and outreach materials related to CCI. SESSION #2: SUMMIT OUTCOMES Decision #2: General Summit Outcomes AGREE that the annex below entitled Framework for General Summit Outcomes (Annex III), along with the revisions agreed during the discussion, should be used by participating governments to organize and promote tangible and meaningful Summit outcomes. Agree further that the agreed framework and any new documents developed during the discussion of this agenda be reviewed and revised by governments prior to use by companies and partners in the furtherance of this process. Decision #3: Government Leaders Declaration AGREE that the annex below entitled Framework for Government Leaders Declaration (Annex IV), along with the revisions agreed during the discussion, provides a useful framework for developing the first draft of the Leaders Declaration, which will be produced jointly by the governments of Grenada and the British Virgin Islands (as Summit co-hosts). The first draft of the Leaders Declaration will be circulated to the CCI governments approximately 2 months in advance of SOM2 and will be reviewed in-depth and revised at SOM2. 3 SESSION #3: PARTICIPATION IN CCI AND SUMMIT Decision #4: Formalizing CCI, government leadership, and Summit Secretariat ACKNOWLEDGE that the CCI has been informal in nature, and that moving towards a Summit and more concrete and ambitious commitments by our leaders require us to transition to a more formal phase of the CCI that clearly needs to be led by our governments. FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGES the creation of a Summit Secretariat by the Government of Grenada, to support the agreed Roadmap of activities leading up to the Summit including preparatory activities related to coordination, communications, and logistics. Decision #5: Standard criteria for full CCI membership by governments AGREE that Caribbean governments can join CCI by publicly endorsing—at a high political level (i.e. minister, cabinet, or head of government)—the (i) “20 by 20” target (i.e. to effectively conserve at least 20% of their near-shore marine / coastal environment by 2020); and (ii) sustainable finance architecture target (i.e. to support and put in place a new sustainable finance architecture that will generate long-term funding for the marine and coastal environment). (Note: All governments currently participating in CCI will be considered members since they have either already made this commitment or intend to do so at the Summit.) Decision #6: Criteria for government participation in negotiation of Leaders Declaration AGREE that all governments currently participating in CCI can participate in the negotiation of the Leaders Declaration, and that any governments that meet the agreed criteria outlined in Decision #5 above for CCI membership (at least one month before SOM2) can participate in the negotiations starting at SOM2. Thereafter, negotiations will be closed to new members. Decision #7: Participation of governments, companies, and partners in the Summit AGREE to the revision of an indicative list, based on Annex V (Indicative Participants List for Summit), of participants containing three categories: governments, companies, and partners (public agencies, foundations, NGOs, academic and research institutions) that will provide guidance to the governments of Grenada and the British Virgin Islands in preparing for the Summit. AGREE FURTHER that Caribbean governments are invited to submit to the governments of Grenada (Secretariat) and the British Virgin Islands further recommendations by August 31, 2012, for inclusion in the revised Annex VI (Indicative Participants List for Summit).