Background to the Sustainable Land Management Project

Participating countries

Participating Caribbean States

In September 2004, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the financing body for the United Nations environmental conventions, approved a worldwide project titled “Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Targeted Portfolio Approach for Capacity Development and Mainstreaming of Sustainable Land Management (LDC-SIDS SLM Portfolio Project for short)”. Under the LDC-SIDS Portfolio Project 47 lesser developed countries and small island developing states worldwide, including 13 in the Caribbean region will be able to access an expedited Medium-Sized Project (MSP). The project is intended to develop individual, institutional and systemic capacities to mainstream sustainable land management into national policies and development planning. The project will also assist national governments in identifying appropriate mechanisms for financing SLM.

This Project originated under the aegis of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This international Convention provides a common framework for countries to address issues related to desertification and land degradation. All countries party to the Convention are required to prepare a National Action Programme (NAP) that outlines provisions for implementation of the convention. The MSPs prepared by the participating countries will contribute to implementation the NAPs. Additionally, the MSPs will be designed and implemented in concordance with regional and sub-regional frameworks (such as the Barbados Plan of Action, the St. Georges’ Declaration of Principles for Environmental Sustainability in the OECS and Regional Action Plans under the UNCCD).

The project is being implemented by United Nations Development Programme – Global Environment Fund (UNDP-GEF) in close consultation and support from the UNCCD Secretariat.

For the Caribbean region, the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute has the lead responsibly in provision of technical support services to the participating countries in execution of their MSPs.