23 November 2012: The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is consulting Community member governments to assess the current state of national environmental statistics collection, management, and dissemination. The focus is on statistics related to agriculture and land use, biodiversity, coastal and marine resources, and forestry.

The exercise undertaken by the CARICOM Secretariat’s Regional Statistics Programme is part of the EU-funded project on Capacity Building Related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Regional Statistics Programme officials are meeting with National Statistical Offices, MEA focal points, and environment ministries, departments and agencies involved in producing and using the relevant statistics. The visits examine national data collection mechanisms and determine what data gaps exist regarding biodiversity, particularly data needed to meet the reporting requirements of biodiversity-related MEAs such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) of the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region.

The Programme’s missions to Member States also discuss the role of the CARICOM secretariat in collecting and disseminating biodiversity-related data, promoting inter-agency cooperation in filling gaps and in developing and harmonizing the use of biodiversity indicators. [CARICOM Press Release]