The Department of Environment this week facilitated the development of Anguilla’s Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) with special emphasis on the Tourism Sector. The Assessment took the form of a workshop that ran from August 18 to 20 at the Teachers' Resource Centre.

L-R: Rohn Connor and Mr. Joslyn

Representative from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), Ottis Joslyn, coordinated the three-day sessions which were the final part of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) funded Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan and Public Education and Outreach Strategy for Anguilla.

The VCA workshop opened with a prayer by Gina Brooks, the National Song by Roxanne Webster and Opening Remarks by Chairman Rhon Connor of the Department of Environment. Mr. Connor also introduced Mr. Joslyn.

Connor informed his audience that in August 2004, Anguilla and the other United Kingdom (UK) Overseas Territories in the Caribbean had the opportunity to be a part of the regional movement on Climate Change. He said Anguilla was part of a Cross-Territory Overseas Territories Environmental Program that DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) supported. He thanked DFID and the FCO for the role they played to facilitate Climate Change Workshops.

According to Connor, in September 2004 Anguilla received funding to be a part of the Overseas Territories Delegation at a one-month course on Climate Change in the UK. During the course, the ‘Enhancing the Capacity for the Adaptation to Climate Change in the UK Overseas Territories’ (ECAT) Programme (also known as the Climate Change Programme) was conceived.

Connor disclosed that there were many challenges since the Climate Change Course of 2004 and its resulting ECAT Programme. He said, in spite of the challenges, the programme survived and he was happy to report that Anguilla is in the third and final stage of the programme.

Mr. Connor stated that Anguilla would use its opportunities to ensure that its residents were educated about Climate Change and that the island takes the necessary initiatives to mitigate any potential impact.

The environmental technocrat listed some of the outputs of the ECAT Programme: “All five overseas territories in the region have to prepare and complete an Issues Paper on Climate Change, a Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment for Climate Change (VCA) with a focus on Tourism, a Public Awareness and Outreach Strategy and a Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.”

Connor described the role of CCCCC as being available to provide timely expertise to ensure that all five UK Overseas Territories complete appropriate and affordable outputs based on the expected outputs of the ECAT Programme. He said the five Territories were all at different stages of development of the outputs. He pointed out that all the documents should be completed by September 2009.

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