Caribbean Working to Cope with Natural Disasters

Environmental and emergency response professionals from throughout the region gathered in Kingston, Jamaica, at a two-day meeting to examine how to better prepare and respond to natural hazards and disasters in the Caribbean.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Caribbean Disaster Response Agency (CDERA) jointly organized the conference that was held under the theme Beyond 2004 Events - Lessons for the Caribbean Region.

It brought together 150 participants from 25 countries to review the experiences from last year´s active hurricane season.

The effects of four hurricanes that swept the region resulted in excess of US$5 billion in damage to seven states including Grenada, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas.

The conclusions of the workshop will be shared with international donor agencies, disaster response agencies of regional governments and also

non-government organizations.