Scaling Up Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainability in the Caribbean Region: A Comprehensive Policy Mapping Analysis
BIOPAMA II has been a journey towards improving the long-term conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries across protected and conserved areas, and surrounding communities.
As BIOPAMA's operations in the Caribbean region conclude at the end of 2024, a comprehensive policy landscape analysis of biodiversity conservation supporting policies has been published. The outcomes of BIOPAMA II can be scaled up to achieve greater sustainability across the region, while also pinpointing opportunities for further programmes that support these objectives.
Recognising the existence of various regional and national documents that assess the policy landscape and alignment in the Caribbean to varying degrees, and acknowledging the rapidly changing global policy environment, this analysis seeks to provide an updated, consolidated overview of the Caribbean policy landscape for biodiversity conservation.
Additionally, it aims to assess the alignment and gaps of selected key policies with global biodiversity-related targets, and to identify opportunities and provide recommendations for enhanced biodiversity conservation in the Caribbean, ensuring the scaling up and sustainability of BIOPAMA II's key outcomes.
Following are the answers to some common inquiries and reasons why this analysis is worth your time and attention:
What was the scope of the Policy analysis?
- The policy analysis primarily focuses on several key frameworks, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the SAMOA Pathway, the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and the Escazú Agreement. Relevant natural resource, environment, and biodiversity policies from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) were also considered. While the analysis takes into account multilateral agreements that pertain to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the region, the in-depth focus is on the GBF, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 14 and 15, as well as regional and national biodiversity-specific strategies. Geographically, the analysis covers the fourteen sovereign states of CARICOM—namely Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago—along with the Dominican Republic, which is an observer to CARICOM.
What were the challenges or limitations to this policy analysis?
Geopolitical Complexity
# of policies
Policy availability and information
What were the main findings?
The Caribbean has developed two regional umbrella polices for the environment and natural resources – the CARICOM Environmental and Natural Resources Policy Framework and Action Plan 2020-2030 (CENRPF) and the OECS’s Revised St. George’s Declaration of Principles for Environmental Sustainability (SGD 2040). Overall, the analysis found that both are well aligned with each other as well as with their respective biodiversity strategies, global sustainable development and biodiversity frameworks and other relevant regional and inter-regional agreements. Under these umbrella documents are the corresponding regional biodiversity policies as well as common natural resource policies (e.g. for tourism, fisheries etc.) to which member States have committed to implementing through aligned national policies. While for the most part strategies are well aligned and address the main priorities for the region, some gaps were found.
What were the main gaps?
The subregional (OECS) objectives related to marine planning, monitoring and transboundary ecosystem goods and services are not included at the regional (CARICOM) level, and forest- and research-related targets identified at the regional level are not included at the subregional level. Notably however, there is an absence of targets and actions specifically directed at conserving endangered and endemic species and promoting genetic diversity at the subregional level.
The following four key areas included in global biodiversity policies were found to be either lacking or poorly represented in regional policies:
Removing harmful subsidies and biodiversity regulatory context in businesses
Protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures
Participatory decision-making and governance
Gender equality and responsiveness
What were the main priorities?
The top 3 regional priorities identified were:
Climate change impacts and biodiversity/ecosystem resilience,
Invasive alien species (IAS), and
Pollution
While the following were identified as national priorities:
Integrated spatial planning and management, and
Sustainable management and use of natural resources
Protected Areas,
Genetic and species conservation, and
Data and information (also a very high priority at a subregional level).
Policy should be more than a piece of paper; it needs to be implemented. What are some of the challenges that were found with regard to implementing existing policy?
Some of the key challenges identified in implementing existing policies include:
Complex Geopolitical Context: The region’s geopolitical diversity can significantly impact how the Caribbean’s efforts, priorities and progress are understood. For example, where efforts have been made (e.g. reducing deforestation and reforestation) across the Caribbean, these can be overshadowed by the larger Latin American counterparts’ trends; hence despite efforts, progress can be perceived as moving away from deforestation targets.
Lack of Financing: Donors rarely fund all countries in the region making it difficult to fund comprehensive regional programmes for conserving biodiversity. CARICOM countries are considered middle income countries and therefore can face several challenges meeting eligibility criteria for many grants. Limited capacity for grant writing or financial management and inter-sectoral competition for funds can pose additional challenges; and countries continue to struggle with balancing infrastructure and economic needs with biodiversity conservation evidenced in national budgets seldom prioritising for biodiversity conservation and protection
Poor Biodiversity Integration into Other Sectors: the differing interests, priorities and needs of productive, economic and financial sectors, alongside the lack of awareness of the values and importance of biodiversity to these sectors and lack of collaboration and cooperation among government departments and agencies are all barriers to effective environmental and biodiversity management in CARICOM countries.
Limited Data and Information: There is a lack of appropriate data and availability of harmonised indicators data and/or quantitative data to measure progress towards global, regional and national targets on biodiversity and environmental conditions. The data and information challenges in the region largely stem from limited human, technical and financial capacity for data collection and management, and inadequate data sharing mechanisms.
Insufficient Human Resources and Capacity: the Caribbean has experienced a significant outward migration over the past two decades that has led to a shortage of skilled professionals to effectively implement policies and programmes on the ground and a reliance on external experts or project-based implementation that is unsustainable.
How will this document be useful?
Apart from providing a comprehensive analysis of the Caribbean’s biodiversity policy framework, the document identifies pathways and recommended actions to facilitate implementation of the biodiversity policy frameworks to enhance/strengthen the region’s conservation of biodiversity. Furthermore, this document will help support decision making at all levels, from government to practitioners by identifying the key policy gaps as they relate to global, regional, sub-regional and national level biodiversity priorities.
Discover more of BIOPAMA's impacts and read the report HERE.
About BIOPAMA
The Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme aims to improve the long-term conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, in protected areas and surrounding communities. It is an initiative of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States financed by the European Union’s 11th European Development Fund (EDF), jointly implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC). Building on the first five years of activities financed by the 10th EDF (2012-2017), BIOPAMA’s second phase provides tools for data and information management, services for improving the knowledge and capacity for protected area planning and decision making, and funding opportunities for specific site-based actions. www.biopama.org
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