Speaking Notes for an Intervention on

The Multidimensional Approach to Hemispheric Security:

The Environmental Perspective

Delivered by

The Honourable Assad Shoman

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Belize

To the

32^nd Regular Session of the General Assembly

Of The Organization of American States

Bridgetown, Barbados

3^rd June 2002

New Security concerns identified by the OAS and other multi-lateral organizations have underscored that the protection and sustainable use of our environment is essential to ensure the security of our people.

There is a direct link between deforestation, water and air pollution, global warming, and the increasing frequency and strength of hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.

The Caribbean region is characterized by a unique biodiversity and highly fragile ecosystems and is heavily reliant on its coastal zones and the preservation of its pristine marine environment to sustain viable economic growth. Our lush rain forests are also important to the region’s economies and to the hemisphere’s environmental well being. Our dialogue on Security threats must recognize the principle of shared responsibility in this matter.

The issue of climate change is critical to our survival. A collective response to adapt to and reduce its impact is a further challenge to our vulnerability, as climate change variability is directly linked to the frequency and intensity of the natural disasters which besiege our delicate sub-region. In addition, rising sea levels caused by global warning, one of the symptoms of climate change, poses a real threat to Caribbean States.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has forecast that average global temperatures will rise by between 1.4 to 5.8 degrees centigrade by 2100……The UN Study predicts that a temperature rise of up to 5.8 degrees could cause a sea water rise which could submerge island nations and low lying countries, generate massive forest dieback, and accelerate species extinctions.

The CARICOM countries of the Caribbean are among those island nations and low lying countries as front-line victims of environmental collapse. Global warming is a major scourge and carbon levels are rising with industrialized countries preponderantly responsible. The threat to our survival does not derive from our wrongdoing but that of others.

Those who willfully take decisions that threaten our very survival should reconsider bearing in mind our full cooperation in confronting threats that affect them.

Recall the initiative to have the Caribbean Sea declared a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development and our efforts to block the transit of hazardous and nuclear waste through the Caribbean.

The Caribbean faces dire prospects if we lose the delicate balance of Conservation and Development. But the greatest danger we face is to development itself. No real development is possible, let alone sustainable, if it not predicated on the alleviation of poverty. Poverty unrelieved is the contradiction of sustainable development. It must be, therefore, the foremost priority of our own efforts and the efforts of those like the Organization of American States who recognize the importance of our development and that it should be on a sustainable basis. That was the message from Monterrey – from the UN’s Conference on Financing for Development. Let us carry that commitment forward to Johannesburg at the World Conference for Sustainable Development.