The Department of Forestry in collaboration with the Partnership Initiative For Sustainable Land Management (PISLM) hosted a Media launch of phase 1 of the Caribbean Seed Soil Care Project which is envisaged to enhance the framework for the management of soil and land resources in small island developing states.

The program will seek to improve decision making on sustainable soil management and sustainable land management by strengthening technical capacities, and coordination mechanisms as well as updating national soils information and the national level. Under this initiative, soil labs in the region will become better equipped to adapt and respond more efficiently to soil challenges.

Head of the Environmental Sustainability Division of the OECS, Chamberlain Emmanuel, says the project will ensure policymakers operate from data that is current and accurate through the development of a GIS soils map in Saint Lucia.

“The Caribbean, particularly our small OECS member states, has been classified as one of the most vulnerable regions to the world to the impacts of environmental degradation. Confronted with changes in rainfall patterns, temperature, drought and flooding, we must remain firmly in support of policies and initiatives towards the achievement of land degradation neutrality, especially to the promotion of  sustainable land management approaches which defined as the use of natural resources including soil, water, animals, plants, for the production of goods to meet changing human needs whilst simultaneously ensuring the long term  production of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions.”

Phase one of the SoilCare Project will focus on rolling out projects on the ground in three national implementation sites including Choiseul, Bois-D’Inde, and Sarot.

Executive Director of Partnership Initiative For Sustainable Land Management, Calvin James highlights the importance of this initiative to improving and ensuring the sustainability of Saint Lucia’s land and water resources and reduced degradation.

“We are thankful for the support we have had throughout the communities as we developed the Saint Lucia segment of Soil Care Phase 1. We know it will be a success because it meets the direct needs of people in the communities. We also want to thank our ministerial technical and political partners who ensured that we were able to do the work that was necessary on the ground to bring us to this point.”

As the world continues to work together to accomplish Sustainable Development Goal 13 to combat climate change and its impacts, the Government of Saint Lucia remains committed to efforts against change to reverse land degradation.