On the sidelines of the 10th OECS Council of Ministers Meeting on Environmental Sustainability, Mrs. Úrsula Parrilla, Regional Director for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Mr. Didacus Jules (Ph.D.), Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which defines strategic areas of cooperation between both organisations, towards joint integrated responses for sustainability, resilience, and prosperity in OECS Member States.
Created in 1948, IUCN is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources, and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and 15,000 experts. Its mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies worldwide to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an Inter-governmental Organisation dedicated to regional integration in the Eastern Caribbean and aiming at achieving a better quality of life for its people, by driving and supporting sustainable development through regional integration, collective action, and development cooperation.
Having engaged in substantial technical and scientific cooperation activities within the framework of a previous 5-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 4 February 2020 and recognizing the benefits that each may derive from their mutual collaboration, both parties reaffirm their shared commitment with the signature of a new MoU for the period 2023-2028. This agreement will allow the OECS and the IUCN to expand collaboration and guide the cooperation between both parties in different areas related to environmental sustainability, such as regional environmental information systems; biodiversity and ecosystems conservation; plastic waste management and reduction; promotion of green, blue and circular economy approaches; protected areas management, amongst others.
IUCN’s presence in the Caribbean began to take shape as early as 2003. Currently, IUCNʼs Caribbean membership comprises 18 member organisations, two of them (SOS Faune Savage in Guadeloupe and the Saint Lucia National Trust) in the OECS Member States. The Caribbean is also represented in IUCN’s Commissions by over 100 experts, over two-thirds of which are supporting the World Commission on Protected Areas and the Species Survival Commission. Through global initiatives with intervention in the Caribbean and national and regional projects coordinated by the IUCN Regional Office for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean (ORMACC), IUCN currently manages a project portfolio of over USD 12.9 million in the Caribbean region.
IUCNʼs work in the Caribbean region is fully integrated within the framework of the Nature 2030 IUCN Programme, delivering concrete and tangible positive impacts to People, Land, Water, Oceans, and Climate, while ensuring alignment with the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.