Final declaration

"Turning 'the Wider Caribbean' into an exemplary zone for combating climate change"

Climate warming is presently a generally accepted fact among the international scientific community.
The work of the Inter-agency Group of Experts (GIEC) on climate development has confirmed the existence of abnormal global warming of a scope and rate of development never before experienced, caused in essence by human activity.

The GIEC has also established that, since a major portion of its territories are exposed to seas and oceans, the countries of the insular and continental Caribbean form part of the areas most vulnerable to the various impacts of current changes in climate.

Such changes risk causing a rise in sea level (with consequences of loss of territory and higher rate of land development), an increase in coastal erosion and in hurricane intensity, weakened natural protection of the coastline (mangrove wetlands and coral), as well as fragile land-based ecosystems already hindered by deforestation, rarefied water resources, disturbance in fish stock, renewed outbreak in epizootics and vectorial diseases.

The climate threat occurs at a time when most countries of the Caribbean must also take up the challenge of energy production, economic* and demographic stability and of globalisation within the context of a world population growth rate.

The combination of these various challenges risks altering the efficiency or yet the pertinence of economic investments realised over the past years, leading to social problems never before encountered.

Within such a context, the participants of the symposium, "Climate Change: The Caribbean in Danger!" present in Fort-de-France on Monday 11th, Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th December, 2006, as part of the framework of the Martinique Agenda 21 programme,aware of the urgency of strengthening regional cooperation among the countries of the Wider Caribbean within the framework of the struggle against the effects of climate change :
Draw the international scientific community’s attention to the long term consequences of climate change on their territories, particularly exposed and vulnerable.

Reaffirm the high priority for compliance with international commitments encouraging a decrease in greenhouse gas emission, within the context of Kyoto Protocol objectives.

Insist on the importance of an effective policy for complementary adaptation of mitigation policies in the spirit of the principles and commitments as announced in the Rio Declaration on the Environment, the principles set in the Barbados Declaration for the Small Developing Island States Sustainable Development Action Programme and the Mauritius Declaration.

Affirm their will to turn the Wider Caribbean into an exemplary application zone :

• in terms of renewable energy, in order to take part in the struggle against the worsening of the greenhouse effect, despite the low rate of emissions,
• in terms of adaptation in order to limit the multiple impacts of climate change.

• - developing acquisition of data and research as well as pooling and using existing data, especially through regional cooperation efforts
• - developing awareness and training programmes, and emphasising the critical role played by associations and NGOs in mobilising the public on this issue
• - combining the climate factor into the planning and decision-making process
• - combining impact and vulnerability into public policies
• - Europe's valorising of the Outermost Regions and OCTs within the framework of international dialogue begun on climate change, directed in particular toward ACP countries
• the effective application by the European Union of the numerous proposals ¹ formulated by the Outermost Regions, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) and ACP countries, in the area of the environment and climate change)

Hence recommend a strengthening of reflection and regional coordination in the sharing of skills and alert tools and disaster preparedness for the region, taking account of the experience of the CARICOM, that of the ACS, the means and resources existing in Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique as well as the expertise of the National Observatory on the Effects of Climate Warming (ONERC).

Hence appeal to the International Community for support in strengthening technological, scientific and institutional capacity in the countries of the Wider Caribbean, in particular, in the form of transfer of know-how.

The President of the Martinique General Council is committed, within the continuum of the General Council's competency already existing in the area of geographic and remote surveillance data systems, to vest the members of the Plenary Assembly he chairs, with the powers of creating a Martinican Observatory of Human and Biophysical Environments for future integration into a Caribbean network.

Issued in Fort-de-France this 13th day of December, 2006

(1)“Message from Paris”, outcome of the conference “Biodiversity and European Cooperation for Development", Paris 19-21 September, 2006, OCT/EU Forum Political Declaration (Nuuk, 5-7 September, 2006)

Paul VERGES Claude LISE