CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana ) A five –day training intervention for the Caribbean Region’s environmental negotiators opened in St Kitts and Nevis on Monday, 28 May 2012.

The workshop, which will be held at the Ocean Terrace Inn, is organized by the CARICOM Secretariat with support from the European Union, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) under the Caribbean Hub Sub-Component Project for Capacity-Building Related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries.

The focus is on Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) concerned with biodiversity, climate change and oceans management.

More than 40 junior negotiators drawn from CARIFORUM countries will be participating in this training intervention, as they seek to build their capacity to represent national and regional interests in international fora, and so to facilitate the process of succession planning at the national and regional levels.

Through a series of presentations and discussions, the workshop will explore a wide range of topics, including an introduction to environmental law; Small islands in international negotiations; How MEAs work in practice; Influencing approaches and styles and International Conventions.

At the end of the five days, junior negotiators should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the key aspects of MEA negotiating processes and decision making; identify major issues under negotiation in MEAs; prepare for an MEA negotiation; draft issue briefs and statements; engage in MEA negotiations and promote the priorities of their countries.

The workshop will be facilitated by Ms. Joy Hyvaerinen and Mr. Chad Carpenter, Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD); Mr. Christopher Corbin, United Nations Environment Programme - Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP CAR/RCU);Ms. Judith Ephraim, Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science & Technology, Saint Lucia and Mr. Gilroy English from Gilroy English Associates.