Minister Samuda Underscores Importance of Cartagena Convention

Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Matthew Samuda, has underscored the enduring importance of the Cartagena Convention.

The charter, officially titled the ‘Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region’, is a legally binding regional treaty adopted in 1983 under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

It aims to protect and sustainably manage the marine environment of the wider Caribbean region, including the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and adjacent Atlantic Ocean areas; and promote regional cooperation among Caribbean states to address marine pollution, habitat degradation, and biodiversity loss.

Speaking during Monday’s (October 13) opening ceremony for UNEP’s 18th Meeting of the Contracting Parties (COP18) for the Cartagena Convention, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, Minister Samuda noted that many of the environmental challenges currently confronting the Caribbean were far less chronic in 1983, when the charter was first adopted.

He emphasised that the triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution – continues to unfold daily before the eyes of Caribbean citizens.

“There is no illusion that we are facing the impacts of a climate which has already changed. There is no dissonance… that we’re facing the impact of pollution, whether from effluent discharge or plastics; and none of us, I imagine, would disagree that we’ve had particular loss of biodiversity within this region,” Mr. Samuda said.

This, he added, “suggests that we have a lot of work to do”.

“We must work through the Convention and other such mechanisms to ensure that we’re able to tackle the triple planetary crisis in a practical way in our backyard. Not sitting by simply as victims of this crisis but as active participants in the solutions that are indeed available to us,” he maintained.

Meanwhile, Mr. Samuda is calling on regional member states to act as guardians of the Caribbean Sea.

He emphasised that they must be clear on the value of the shared Caribbean Sea, noting that while it offers enjoyment, it is also an absolutely critical pillar of the economies across much of the region.

“In being guardians of the sea, we need to ensure that our own targets are as ambitious as they can be and that we continue to press the international community to honour the commitments that it has indeed made,” Minister Samuda said.