The Department of Forestry continues efforts to increase its capacity, this time through a  training workshop for forestry officers and other technical officials.

As part of the “African, Caribbean, and Pacific Multinational Environmental Agreement,” ACP MEA a capacity-building program funded by the FAO, the Department of Forestry hosted a training workshop for forest officers and other field experts within the Ministry of Agriculture.

The four-day training program aimed at preparing officers to approach stakeholders within the agriculture sector such as farmers using various techniques and skills to ensure the efficient use of our national resources.

Michael Andrew, a consultant for the FAO, notes that the training focused primarily on participatory approaches, such as participatory management and discovery-based extension engagement methods.

“What has happened is that the traditional and conventional method has not worked as it should, it has involved the top=-down approach. This approach changed the surface, the landscape of thing by using a bottom-up approach, so you would have to now identify stakeholders. When you do that now you would have to find certain ways to engage them. Not every stakeholder group can be reached in the same way, there are those you can meet through consultations, and those you meet through meetings. The whole idea is to develop stakeholders that will be interested in projects and that would have certain responsibilities to implement in projects. By so doing the technical persons would have partners in conducting project activities and it will be a more successful approach”

ACP MEAs 3 Regional Project Coordinator,  Thérèse Yarde, notes that building capacity amongst field experts is one of the most essential keys in ensuring Saint Lucia biodiversity continues to thrive.

The FAO is working with forestry to restore ecosystems along a number of riverbanks across Saint Lucia, and we of course want to work with the communities who live along those riverbanks because they are very important stakeholders and very important beneficiaries, so through these workshops, we are enabling the officers involved to be able to reach out to these communities effectively, understand their needs and  how the work that we’re doing can serve them.”

Agricultural Engineer and participant of the training workshop, Kwesi Goddard explains the importance of initiatives such as the training workshop in increasing productivity and efficiency in the agriculture sector.

“One person will be studying one field and focusing on a problem in one way whereas in our department we have various units and you find when we approach a problem from all these different aspects then we are more likely to come up with a solutions. So in that way learning to engage officers, learning to empower each other to be confident enough to voice the solution that we have in mind then we are able to utilize this and make it impact our country.”

As the forest sector continues to play an important role in ensuring the nation’s food security, the Department of Forestry remains committed to improving and expanding its capabilities to better serve the stakeholders within the agriculture sector and the wider public.