institutional mechanisms for coordination and collaboration. The lack of coordination and collaboration between governments and nongovernmental groups is paralleled by insufficient inter-donor collaboration at a national level. This has been identified as a significant issue in, for example, Haiti (Smucker et al. 2007) where heightened inter-donor collaboration at policy levels as well as the targeting of field interventions was seen as a critical need. The prevalent view of the environment as a niche issue is reflected in the lack of integration of environmental objectives into broader sector policies and programs, which is partly a reflection of poor understanding of the linkages between biodiversity and ecosystem services and local livelihoods, employment and national economies among decisionmakers in non-environment sectors. This gives rise to politically weak and under-funded environment agencies and biodiversity conservation policy still being seen as incompatible with and restricting development policy, despite the presence of national sustainable development strategies in many countries that highlight the importance of biodiversity. However, attitudes toward the environment at senior level do seem to be changing, due to the increasing awareness and international profile of the impact of climate change, which is having a real effect in the Caribbean.
Inadequate Public Participation in Decision-making Processes National and local governance frameworks for environmental planning and management vary greatly from country to country, but governments are generally highly centralized with often high levels of state control, especially in the smaller island states (Cuba as well). Although most recent national policy frameworks include provisions for private sector and public stakeholder participation in environment and development decisionmaking, such as National Sustainable Development Councils, and stakeholder participation is promoted under many regional and international initiatives in which Caribbean governments participate (Agenda 21 and the Barbados Programme of Action for Sustainable Development in Small Island Developing States encourage stakeholder participation in sustainable development processes), government consultation processes have been criticized for being largely “cosmetic� in many countries, with involvement of public stakeholders only at the end of processes when decisions have essentially already been made (CANARI, 2005). Consequently, there is a clear need to improve civil society participation in environmental decisionmaking and governance. The benefits of public involvement in decisionmaking are well documented (Borrini-Feyerabend et al. 2004).
Limited Technical and Scientific Knowledge and Poor Availability of Information Needed for Effective Decisionmaking Although the Caribbean countries have shown major improvement in research and assessment of their living natural resources in recent years, considerable gaps in baseline data still exist and there is a often a lack of accurate, up-to-date information which limits effective evidence-based decisionmaking for biodiversity conservation, the ability to prepare effective land-use plans, EIAs and environmental monitoring, and complicates the enforcement of regulations. Information is also frequently scattered and difficult to access and with poor coordination/linkage between databases (even within governments), although there are some good regional reviews and attempts have been made to overcome some of these problems through the creation of national Clearing House Mechanisms (see www.cbd.int/chm/network/?tab=3) for biodiversity data under the CBD and regional data-gathering programs such as the Inter-American Biodiversity information Network (www.iabin.net/).
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