Minister of the Environment, Dr. Denis Lowe????

Barbados will this week be advancing its strong position on the role of the ocean in climate change, sea level rise, coastal hazards, ocean acidification and other attendant survival issues affecting Small Island Developing States.

The opportunity comes, as?? Minister of the Environment, Dr. Denis Lowe, ??participates in a Ministerial Roundtable for Ministers of Science,?? in Paris tomorrow and Tuesday, October 13 and Wednesday, October 14, on the theme: ???Building Stewardship for the Ocean: The Contribution of?? UNESCO to Responsible Ocean Governance’. It forms part of the 35th Session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Dr. Lowe, who received a personal invitation from Director General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, will join a Barbados delegation headed by Minister of Education and Human Resource Development, Ronald Jones for the special ministerial dialogue.

The Ministerial roundtable has been organised as a forerunner to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in 2010. Barbados remains a leader, as well as a beneficiary of the programmes of the IOC, in the area of capacity development and national implementation. Tsunamis and Coastal Hazards Early Warning, Harmful Algal Blooms, Caribbean Marine Data Atlas development, and Ocean/Coastal Observing Systems, are all IOC programmes with which Barbados is fully engaged.

Barbados continues to play a leadership role in the work of the IOC and, via the Coastal Zone Management Unit of the Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Drainage.?? It will continue to play a key role in coastal zone planning, management and monitoring as well as infrastructure intervention at vulnerable sites.

The Barbados delegation to the October 6 – 14 Paris meeting,?? includes officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Community Development and Culture, the Barbados National Commission for UNESCO, the National Heritage Department and the Coastal Zone Management Unit.

cgaskin@barbados.gov.bb

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