United Nations Development Programme and The Global Environmental Facility Piloting Natural Resource Valuation within Environmental Impact Assessments

contribute to the implementation of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) through the development and application of natural resource valuation tools. In particular, the project will work in parallel with the Environmental Action Programme (ENACT), as SEAs are undertaken on various sectoral policies, programmes and plans. The project will ‘top-up ’ ENACT’s capacity development activities of training and sensitization of the value of SEAs, and enforcement and compliance of EIAs with training and sensitization on the utility of natural resource valuation as a means to meeting both national and global environmental objectives over the long-term. The development of natural resource valuation tools will provide an opportunity for these to be institutionalized as part of ENACT Programme’s capacity development activities. In this way, SEAs will be greatly improved in being able to make better predictions of possible consequences of policy interventions, facilitating the development of strategies to reduce policy resistances and facilitate the consideration of environmental risks and impacts associated with the implementation of government policies. By providing a more robust and comparable valuation method for natural resources, consequences of development policies, programmes and plans will be better evaluated so as to promote biodiversity conservation; minimize, if not reduce the risks associated with land degradation; encourage climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies; and promote environmentally sound and sustainable development The Government of Jamaica will execute this project over a period of three years, starting in 2008 with the National Environment and Planning Agency as the main implementing partner, working closely with a Project Steering Committee (PSC) that will provide high-level policy guidance and oversight. A projec