TOOLS FOR A GREEN ISLAND: ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENT AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SAN JOSE 000146 SIPDIS STATE PLEASE PASS TO AID AID FOR JGARRISON KINGSTON PLEASE PASS TO NCARTER AND JHARMON SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV EAID ENRG JM SUBJECT: TOOLS FOR A GREEN ISLAND: ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT in JAMAICA REF: 07 STATE 30914 ¶1. SUMMARY. While in Kingston October 21-24, 2007, REO met with UNEP, GOJ environmental officials, and U.S. Mission environmental partners to discuss priorities and potential tools. UNEP's Franklin Macdonald shared his views on WW2BW's future. Jamaica's National Environment and Planning Agency flagged gaps in land planning expertise in seeking to mitigate the impact of development on the environment. AID reviewed on-going environment and poverty alleviation projects. Although this report is dated, we believe the information is still of interest, applicable in 2008 and thus useful to readers. See opportunities for cooperation, para 13. END SUMMARY. ¶2. REO visited Jamaica October 21-24, 2007. Valuable meetings with Econoff Nathan Carter and the AID environmental delegation highlighted changing priorities in the U.S.-Jamaica bilateral environmental relationship. REO met with United National Environmental Program (UNEP) official Franklin MacDonald and (by phone) future hire Maria Plotz to discuss their thinking on White Water to Blue Water. REO reviewed priorities with National Environment and Planning Agency officials Winsome Townsend and Sheries Simpson, and discussed implementation of Jamaica's Enterprise of the Americas Initiative and Tropical Forest Conservation Act funds. White Water to Blue Water: Ideas for Moving Forward -------------- -------------- ¶3. REO met with Franklin Macdonald, White Water to Blue Water co-chair. (WW2BW is a public-private partnership to promote integrated management of watershed and marine resources for the Greater Caribbean area.) He viewed WW2BW's most important accomplishment as providing "definition" to environmental efforts, promoting a regional grasp of problems and strategies for integrated watershed management and marine resource efforts. MacDonald expected that energy would be generated by the launch of a new website and 2008 Year of the Reef activities. ¶4. Macdonald hoped that the proposed Regional Center for Small Island Developing States, slated for Barbados, would provide secretarial backing to WW2BW, but this entity has not materialized. SIPDIS In order to ensure routine follow-up to inquiries, public outreach, and coordination, MacDonald said he would continue to serve as co-chair but will reduce his hours in order to bring on board part-time Maria Protz of the grassroots Jamaican NGO Friends of the Sea. He also sought to enlist the three Cartegena Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (Cartagena Convention) Regional Action Centers (RACs) to take on the responsibility for guiding the four thematic groups (Marine Transport, Land-based Sources of Pollution, Protected Areas, and Sustainable Tourism). These will be able to coordinate WW2BW with other regional efforts deliver a degree of secretarial support. Macdonald is uncertain whether existing SIPDIS thematic groups would continue. ¶5. He and Protz recognized the need for local ownership of WW2BW. Although WW2BW committees no longer meet regularly in many countries due in part to competing priorities and departure of personnel, they welcomed continued interest from organizations and private interests in the region. Macdonald recommended that, in countries where national WW2BW teams are no longer functioning, an interested organization be recruited to serve as a focal point - in Bahamas, for example, the quasi-NGO Bahamas National Trust might be sounded out. The prospective Friends of WW2BW might help generate private sector support, and Macdonald and Protz pointed to interest from major donors like the regional cellphone company Digicel. ¶6. Protz questioned whether WW2BW had the profile, staff and contacts to be able to tap deep pockets of major donors with its current resources. She recommended that WW2BW consider whether it should invest instead in outreach to small and medium scale SAN JOSE 00000146 002 OF 004 enterprises, serving as a broker between smaller companies looking to partner with reputable community-based organizations or NGOS on issues of common interest. In order to boost its profile, she recommended that, in the short term, approximately ten kits on WW2BW (a banner, hand-out materials, and a continuous power point presentation) be prepared to equip a booth on WW2BW at regional conferences. Development Pressures -------------- ¶7. Conversations on environmental issues confronting Jamaica focused on addressing the environmental consequences of development. This marked a change from REO's prior visit in 2004, which previously stressed biodiversity - fisheries and coral reefs, forest policy and invasive species. ¶8. NEPA officials Winsome Townsend and Sheries Simpson reviewed the workings of Jamaica's Environmental Impact Assessment process. They distinguished between its role in land use planning, in which NEPA shares authority with and supports local government decision-making, and its role in providing environmental permits, in which it exercises sole authority. With particular concerns for coastal real estate development, NEPA intends to integrate risk reduction more explicitly into its permits processes, with applications to address risks linked to pollution, hurricanes, and climate change. While NEPA is confident in the structure of its processes, staffing and resource limitations contribute to delays. NEPA also encourages voluntary certification standards: -- The Blue Flag Program established beach quality standards relied upon by tour operators; -- The Green Globe Program certified the environmental management systems of tourism businesses, particularly hotels; and, -- NEPA informally works with businesses to develop implementation plans for operations adjusting to new regulations on water and air quality. ¶9. NEPA's partners include capacity building projects with UNDP, SIDA, IDB and GEF, and the regional International Watershed and Coastal Resource Management Assessment and Monitoring (IWCRAM). Changing Priorities for U.S. Assistance -------------- ¶10. Reduced U.S. assistance levels and a change in focus from environment to poverty alleviation affected the range and staffing of environment-related projects on the island. The projected second-generation Ridge to Reef program addressing watershed management, whose first iteration helped inspire WW2BW, was eliminated. NEPA noted that Blue Flag and Green Globe projects were successful while AID resources flowed, but met with difficulties when this flow stopped. The NEPA contacts said that project beneficiaries expected to be paid for improving environmental performance even if these changes reduced their costs or positioned them to tap higher-paying ecotourism opportunities. COMMENT: Beneficiaries may be contrasting the certainty of costs needed to maintain green standards with the uncertainty whether sustainable tourism will in fact boost incomes. END COMMENT. ¶11. On-going AID projects which incorporated biodiversity included: -- Rural Enterprise, Agriculture and Community Tourism (REACT), which creates alternative sustainable income earning operations in targeted rural communities that apply sound environmental management practices to conserve Jamaica's biological and cultural heritage; -- Farmers Access to Regional Markets (JA FARMS),a network of growers and market organizations that encourages use of more efficient production technologies, access to capital and training, and a wider choice of markets and products; and, SAN JOSE 00000146 003 OF 004 -- Protected Areas and Rural Enterprise (PARE),which strengthens the linkage between effective natural resource management and livelihoods in and around priority conservation sites. Components include sustainable tourism planning and implementation; threats and economic costs of natural disasters on rural economy and biodiversity; and management of targeted agricultural sectors and businesses that use sustainable, renewable and non-timber forest products. ¶12. In addition, AID represents the Mission on Jamaica's two debt-for-nature swaps, the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (an Enterprise of the Americas Initiative fund) and the Tropical Forest Conservation Act fund. According to Maria Protz of the grassroots NGO Friends of the Sea, the ECJ provided valuable support for grassroots organizations but did not (and was not intended to) ensure the long-term sustainability of community-based organizations and NGOs. Founded in 2004, the U.S.-Jamaica TFCA issued its first project call and awarded 10 grants in 2007. COMMENT: Opportunities for Cooperation -------------- ¶13. Building on the well-established history of environmental engagement between the U.S. and Jamaica, the link between the environment and key economic sectors like tourism, and the range of existing funds and programs that incorporate environmental components, Embassy Kingston might consider a number of opportunities for promoting engagement on ESTH issues. -- AID might consider the appointment of EFJ and TFCA alternates to help bridge gaps in representation and to boost institutional memory in times of transition, perhaps approaching other U.S. Embassy agencies to serve in this capacity. Participation of other agencies that share an interest in the issues under consideration would boost the prospects that the Mission could leverage EAI/TFCA activities with tools like the Embassy Science Fellow Program and American Fellows Program (see below); Earth Day; International Visitor Program and/or other public affairs initiatives. Peace Corps participation might bolster the likelihood that their lessons learned could benefit the funds in their dealing with grassroots organizations; Public Affairs participation could help ensure that the Embassy takes advantage of the plethora of grassroots public affairs opportunities (project launches and closings, for example) that the funds could provide; or Econ/Pol participation could open up new grassroots contacts island-wide. -- The Embassy Science Fellow Program (Ref A) and the American Fellows Program (www.partners.net) are two means for making U.S. expertise available to the Funds and their recipient NGO partners; to government offices like NEPA; and private sector associations. The first permits missions to request a scientist linked to a federal agency to work on a project of interest to the Mission for up to three months. The second permits Western Hemisphere governments to propose placing a U.S. official in a host government agency (or vice versa) for up to six months. NEPA flagged the following themes for such an exchange: i) bolstering NEPA expertise regarding risk reduction, air quality monitoring, air and water pollution loading, and analysis of mapping data; ii) mapping data analysis and application of earth observation data to NEPA operations via tools like Google Earth; and iii) accessing U.S. satellite data in case of hurricanes or other disasters. -- Video conferencing is another tool for linking Jamaican and U.S. scientists and policy-makers. CEP's Franklin Macdonald suggested using this tool for a briefing on the United States-Mexico-Cuba effort to study biological and physical aspects of the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Stream. SAN JOSE 00000146 004 OF 004 -- Mission might consider participating in environment-themed IVs and VOLVIS programs. -- While in many instances green issues could be highlighted in the context of broader cables on themes like energy, mining or agriculture, the Embassy might consider fuller cables directed at climate change and adaptation; forestry; and reefs. The last would be especially timely since 2008 is the Year of the Reef, opening up public affairs opportunities like Reef-Fest or Earth Day. It could also position Jamaica to tap a debt for nature swap for a third time if the U.S. Senate agrees to extend TFCA to reefs. BRENNAN