AS the Caribbean grapples with fluctuating petroleum prices, the Organisation
of East Caribbean States (OECS) hopes to revisit recommendations for
alternative sources of energy developed over two decades ago during another
oil crisis.
This was part of the outcome of a three-day regional symposium on Energy
Efficiency and Energy Management which ended in St. Lucia, last Wednesday.
The OECS Economic Affairs Secretariat collected a range of documents during
the 1970s energy crisis that the OECS Secretariat now plans to revisit.
"There were a lot of studies done looking at new and renewable energy
technologies. For example the geo-thermal potential within the sub-region,
the hydro resources the wind resources and so on", recounts
George Goodwin, OECS Director of Functional Co-operation.
Wind studies were done in all OECS member states with the co-operation of
the Caribbean Meteorological Institute. Two experimental wind turbines were
also erected in Montserrat and Antigua/Barbuda. Several bio-gas and solar
wind drying trials were also conducted.
"The secretariat can assist the member states by revisiting these
studies, updating where necessary and re-circulating them, so that we don't
have to re-invent the wheel", Goodwin added.
The OECS Secretariat, in co-operation with the World Bank, will also soon be
convening a meeting of Ministers responsible for utilities to examine the
potential for regulating the regionšs electricity companies along the line
of ECTEL, the regional regulatory body for Telecommunications in OECS member
states.
The symposium came out of a request from the last meeting of OECS Ministers
of the Environment in November 2000. Following the request, the OECS
Secretariat through its CIDA funded Environmental Management Programme,
contracted a team of consultants to review energy use and management within
the region. Their findings showed a very high dependence in member states on
petroleum products for electrical generation, transportation and domestic
use, up to 95 per cent in most cases. They also found a very low awareness
among the public of energy efficiency or conservation options and very
little attempt by the member states at managing the energy sector.
All OECS member states were represented at the St. Lucia symposium, as well
as several energy-related agencies including the Jamaica-based
Caribbean Energy Information System Project; the Climate Change Project
based in Barbados and the Organizacion Latino-americano de Energia (OLADE)
based in Equador.
MINISTER of the Environment Rawle Eastmond is concerned about abuse of the
environment and is putting measures in place to educate Barbadians.
He thinks that because the island has been spared "environmental
ravishes" Barbadians have become complacent and continue to take the
environment for granted especially those over 55, whom he said, were
difficult to persaude that the island's environment is other than a sound
one.
"In recent times we have seen the deterioration of our coral reefs. We
have also seen some evidence of sea level rise. The phenomenon of global
warming is real and has potential for all possible types of catastrophes,
and if not catastrophes, then inconveniences," he said. "I am
somewhat concerned that motorists allow their vehicles to deteriorate to a
point where emissions coming from them are noxious and offensive; that some
people are willing to abuse the beaches; that some people still see the sea
as a dumping ground, assuming falsely that the sea purges itself and cannot
be undermined. And I am very much concerned at how foreign ships entering
our seas do not take care to understand our law so as to comply with
it."
Eastmond believed this was happening because some saw environment only in
terms of its ambience and pollution, so to help reverse this, his ministry
was working with the schools.
"The bottom line is that if we abuse the environment and if things like
global warming continue unabated, then 30 or 40 years from now the Earth as
we know, could very well be, nowhere as habitable or as genial as it ought
to be."
EFFORTS are on to revive the critically endangered mastic tree.
The mastic is an indigenous tree which was used prolifically by the early
settlers of Barbados as timber. Sir Hans Sloane, described the mastic, in
1687, as "one of the largest and highest of the island. . . where it
grows every where and is in use for all sorts of buildings" according
to a paper published by Jeff Chandler of the University of the West Indies
Biological Sciences Department.
He said the wood from the mastic can be seen in some of the oldest houses on
the island. The beams of the original roof of St. Nicholas Abbey and the
staircase at Drax Hall House were made of mastic.
From the early 1800s the tree started to decline as a result of disease and
over-harvesting. It was also suggested that mahogany, which was introduced
in the 1750s, also "ousted" the mastic.
The indigenous tree has declined to the point where only one was known to
exist by 1993 and is classified as critically endangered. As a result a new
effort to reintroduce the mastic started in 1996. this project is being
sponsored by Cable & Wireless and Botanical Garden Conservation
International. The Barbados National Trust through Andromeda Botanic Gardens
and the University of the West Indies are carrying out the project.