Remarks delivered at the opening ceremony of the 1st POPs training in Barbados. June 04th, 2010 at the CERMES Lecture Room 1, by Marcia Brandon, Executive Director, BYBT and Chairperson of the POPS Project being undertaken by BYBT and its supported young entrepreneur, Malikca Cummings, Managing Director of Caribbean E-Waste Management Inc.

Mr. Stein Hansen - Acting Resident Representative UNDP, Barbados and the OECS; Mr. Giles Romulus- Sub-regional coordinator GEF,SGP, UNDP Barbados and the OECS; Professor Robin Mahon - Professor of Marine Affairs and Director of CERMES, Ms. Malikca Cummings- BYBT supported young entrepreneur and Managing Director of Caribbean E-Waste Management Inc.(CEWMI); POPS Project Management Committee, Participants of this training programme, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen.

The BYBT and CEWMI are currently engaged in a POPs project. This project was started in January 2010 and is scheduled to end in December 2010. The project is the first of its kind in the Caribbean and we are very proud of the response we have had to date from our partners and from the general public, especially the young entrepreneurs.

The project is funded by GEF SGP which is implemented by UNDP as a corporate programme of the GEF on behalf of the three GEF implementing agencies of the World Bank, UNEP and UNDP. The mainfocus of the project is on educating the public about POPs through training sessions in schools, community centers and businesses. The educational component is focused on making the public and businesses aware of what POPs are, how to identify them and how to mitigate their harmful impact.

This training is part of a series of activities under the project to celebrate Environmental Month, which runs for the month of June. This particular training, however, is to commemorate World Environmental Day (WED), which will be celebrated tomorrow. This year's theme is Many Species, One Planet, and One Future. We thank you for being here today to help us in joining thousands of other organizations and individuals as they implement activities around the globe to celebrate this day.

On June 19th, we will also host a POPs rally in Independence Square, details of which will follow. We all have our work cut out for us. According to a UNEP article, there is a lack of data and monitoring capacity for POPs in the Caribbean region. It means therefore that we have no real handle on what damages POPs are doing in the environment. What we do know though is that significant damage is being done.

There is a high level of increase in the use of pesticides which enter the marine environment via surface, drainage, runoff, erosion, misapplication and atmospheric transport. There is also a lack of legislation and regulations on the import, export, transport, use, production, emission, storage and disposal of chemicals in the region.

Our task, if we should accept it, is to make the public aware, then help them to deal with the handling of POPs.

I thank the funders of this project, mentioned earlier, our partners- who generates sustainability, Ms. Paul and Ms. Cummings who both are working very hard to make this project a success, the management committee, who have been invaluable, Ms. Cumming's BYBT approved business mentor- Ms. Claudia James and last but by no means least, the BYBT team and our Boards for their continued and ongoing support.

I wish you all a very successful and productive training. Please remember that the value of this training lies in you using it. And yes please feel free to quote me on that one..Marcia Brandon (2010).