AIMED at increasing the knowledge on global environmental problems in local educational institutions, some thirty-one participants from across 15 institutions last Tuesday took part in a virtual workshop hosted by the Ministry of the Presidency, Department of Environment entitled “Training of the Trainers for the Mainstreaming of the Rio Conventions”.

The Rio Conventions refers to a collection of resolutions that focus on promoting a sustainable planet for future generations, through focusing on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification.

Together the Rio Convention refers to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Guyana signed onto these conventions at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in June 1992, and therefore has particular responsibilities to fulfil as it relates to management of the local environment, these entailed international environmental agendas Guyana has pledged to initiate by 2020.

Tuesday’s workshop is part of the “Strengthening Technical Capacities to Mainstream and Monitor Rio Convention Implementation through Policy Coordination” project (Rio Project). The workshop was facilitated by the University of Guyana (UG) Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Presenters at the workshop included UG Head of Department of Environmental Studies Shanomae Rose; along with Lecturers Dina Benn and Denise Simmons. DoE Project Manager, Michelle Klass, in opening remarks, emphasised the need for collaborative efforts in achieving the aims of the Rio Conventions, and Guyana carrying out its international obligations. She stressed the need for the incorporation of environmentally conscious teachings in the curriculum of educational institutions. She noted that much progress has been made in forming linkages with a number of vital institutions.

“We have achieved a number of important milestones: mainstreaming of the conventions; we have a number of operational by laws; we have started mainstreaming into the NDC plans and programmes; and the signing of MoUs. The MoU is for us to collaborate and share data for a spatial data platform we are in the process of developing,” Klass noted.

Klass also spoke on the establishment of the Environmental Information Monitoring and Management System (EIMMS), and the important role it will play once functional.

“It is a platform we are setting up to share environmental data to share with the public at large. It will be networked to key environmental agencies systems. It is the vision that the platform will be accessed by environmental agencies, academic agencies and everyone,” Klass explained.

Areas covered in the workshop included “Review of Fundamental Concepts”, “the Nexus between Environmental Issues and the Rio Conventions”, and “Introduction to Environmental Management” among other topics. The participants were also able to share their own experiences as relates to teaching on environmental issues.