DEPARTMENT OF ENVIROMENT TO BE ESTABLISHED IN DOMINICA
Minister for the Environment Hon. Cozier Frederick has announced Government’s plans to create a ‘Department of Environment’.his is in keeping with Dominica’s policy on becoming the first climate resilient country in the world.
Minister Frederick considers the creation of the Department of Environment to be a key legislative step in the goal of climate resilience.
“The establishment of a Department of Environment comes from the construction of our environment bill that speaks to having an agency that is dedicated specifically to environmental issues. So that department will focus on all of our international conventions that we are party to,” stated .
The Minister notes that quite a bit of work has been done towards the creation of this department.
“We are on the final stages of the bill and once the bill goes through the processes of parliament we are able by law to establish the department and what that will do, is it will gather all of the resources required for proper environmental management. It will also provide the technical skills and human capacity for developing at the local level the relevant skills for ensuring that all of the environmental aspects are dealt with and so we are excited about this. It’s been a long and tough work to ensure that we have something that deals with environmental issues across the border and so it will follow the structures of the department with a director, with all of the relevant agencies, there will be a legal component in there in case some of the issues that affect us have legal implications. There will also be a finance part of it because we can also raise money and we can look at partners who are able to assist us. So it’s a wholesome project and its one that we at the ministry are really hoping it comes through and that we can have all our issues dealt with in a sort of local palace like a one stop shop,” the Honorable Minister explained.
This department is one that the citizens of Dominica should gladly anticipate.