EU consumers more environmentally conscious, J’can exporters warned
Published:Tuesday | December 20, 2022 | 1:01 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Jamaican exporters are being urged to take note that consumers in the European Union (EU), a market with roughly 450 million people, are becoming more conscious about environmental issues and more selective in their purchases.
Ambassador Marianne van Steen, head of the EU Delegation to Jamaica, made the point while addressing the inaugural national forest conference recently as she urged locals to ensure that they cultivate and harvest forestry materials destined for the EU in environmentally sustainable ways.
“They want to be assured that the production, harvesting, packaging and transportation of the products they purchase have less or no negative impact on the environment,” said van Steen.
“The EU will continue to engage in the many initiatives and partnerships that can raise collective climate ambition and stimulate the transition to the low [carbon] emission needed to preserve our health, well-being, jobs, food security and the planet,” she added. “We owe it to our children and grandchildren to do all that is possible to restore and sustainably manage the earth’s resources.”
The ambassador pointed out that Jamaica’s landscape and forests offer great opportunities to generate more benefits for its people and the environment.
“We have a wide cross-section of stakeholders from the private and public sectors, academia and civil society for sectoral discussions. From these interactions, we hope to identify challenges, solutions and future opportunities for sustainable forestry business development ... ,” she told the conference.
“Some of you in this room have the capital, others have the knowledge, and some are landowners, producers or consumers. You have the opportunity to network, share experience and data that could be useful for the protection, management and effective development of the forest sector as a business in Jamaica,” she charged the audience.
Acknowledging that humanity’s future is linked to a healthy and productive planet that can continue to provide food, clean air and water, and livelihoods, van Steen lamented the unprecedented rate at which biodiversity is being lost across the globe. She noted that this is having an increasing impact as ecosystem degradation threatens food, and water security, resilience to withstand natural disasters, and the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals.
She disclosed that EU states are taking urgent steps to protect at least 30 per cent of land and oceans by 2030, through effectively managed protected areas or other conservation measures, while ensuring the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples.
“We appreciate that Jamaica presented a more ambitious national determined contribution in 2020, focusing on land-use change and forestry. We also note and congratulate Jamaica for being among the Caribbean countries that have signed on to the 30×30 target to protect 30 per cent of the planet’s ocean and land resources by 2030,” she said.