Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud and several key officials from agencies under his purview met with consultants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to discuss projects related to tropical forestry, biological diversity and climate change vulnerability assessments that were implemented in Barbados and other Eastern Caribbean countries. The assessment is regional in nature and will include the compilation, review, analysis and synthesis of existing information related to the projects, coupled with corroboration and feedback from key stakeholders and institutions.
The information gathered during the assessments will inform USAID’s decision-making process and will be presented to the US Congress for policy guidance. Minister Persaud elaborated on several key initiatives within the natural resources sector that can benefit tremendously from technical assistance provided by USAID.
Key Initiatives
Some of these initiatives include enhancing routine timber inventory methodologies to capture carbon stocks, collaboration with the US Parks Service to share experiences with Protected Areas management, curriculum development for the mining school, technology transfer to improve gold recovery and improvement of e solid waste management.
 
Minister Persaud explained that many of these initiatives have already commenced but additional momentum from technical assistance offered by USAID can catapult their possibilities of success.