– opening this weekend
THE 13th annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development opening in Guyana this weekend will expose tourism industry stakeholders to considerable expertise from Caribbean and international organisations, companies and institutions. The event from April 15-18 at the Guyana International Conference Centre in Liliendaal has an impressive line-up of speakers from across the Caribbean including Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and host country Guyana, as well as international experts from several countries.
Close to 200 tourism specialists and media representatives are expected to participate in the three-day forum organised by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). With the theme ‘Keeping the Right Balance: Sustaining Our Resources’, the Conference is a forum for discussion on how to design and implement sustainable tourism policies and programmes.
CTO Secretary-General, Hugh Riley says the organisation has been using more Caribbean expertise at the annual forum because there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in the region.
Among the presenters at the three-day Conference is Leonard Nurse, who is the current Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, headquartered in Belize. He is a former Director, Coastal Zone Management Unit, and Permanent Secretary in the Barbados Ministry of the Environment. Nurse, who is also a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Resources Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus, will serve on the panel in the general session of the conference on ‘Climate Change Adaptation, Reducing the Vulnerability of Caribbean Tourism Infrastructure’.
Another Barbados-based speaker at the sustainable tourism forum is Ena Harvey, who will lead the workshop on ‘Agro and Culinary Tourism – Getting to the Next Level’. She is the Management Coordinator of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA). Ms. Harvey is passionate about linking agriculture with tourism and over the past 10 years, she has been spearheading IICA’s initiative in Agro-tourism linkages while serving as the Representative of IICA’s Office in Barbados and the Hemispheric Specialist in Agro-tourism.
Also participating in STC 13 in Guyana is Charles N. Brown, Director of the Department of Sustainable Development in Bermuda’s Ministry of the Environment, Planning and Infrastructure. For the past four years, he has been building a platform for the government and people of Bermuda to effectively implement the recommendations contained in the government’s five-year Sustainable Strategy and Implementation Plan.
Guyanese specialists involved in the Conference include Shyam Nokta, Adviser to the President and Head, Office of Climate Change (OCC) in the Office of the President, Guyana. The OCC is responsible for coordinating Guyana’s response to climate change and implementing Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The list of presenters includes Mrs. Annette Arjoon-Martins, who chairs the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project which seeks the commitment of Guyanese towards the protection and development of sustainable mangrove forests. The three-year project focuses on administrative capacity development, research, community development and capacity building, mangrove restoration (replanting), and monitoring and awareness and education.
Mrs. Arjoon-Martins has also become synonymous with the Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation Society, one of the first and most successful conservation NGOs established in Guyana.

Mrs Arjoon-Martins will be a panellist for the workshop on ‘Climate Change Adaption – Educating and Innovating for Tourism Sustainability’. Another specialist leading this session is Dr. Maya A Trotz, an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida.
Former Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority, Donald Sinclair, who is now the Coordinator for Tourism, Transport, Infrastructure and Communication at the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation, headquartered in Brasilia, will also be sharing his experience at STC 13.
Delegates to STC 13 will also benefit from the expertise of Antonio del Rosal, Executive Director for Latin America of Adventure Travel Association in Mexico. He will be conducting a workshop on strategic marketing for sustainable adventure travel.