Walkability in Historic Districts in the Caribbean

OAS Technical Meeting

Antigua, Guatemala

2-3 June 2013

Objective

To comparatively analyze built and cultural heritage of four Caribbean cities, Paramaribo, Suriname; Bridgetown, Barbados; St Georges, Grenada; and East Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Current Status

Port of Spain: Adherence to sustainable community principles and UNESCO historic preservation principles:

• Little appreciation evident for the original city center and the east Port of Spain Neighborhood

• Lack of awareness or thought of the basic principles of UNESCO or the Valletta principles.

Paramaribo:

• Low priority on planning initiatives including efforts on sustainability

Lack of pedestrian amenities and basic infrastructure

National policy and institutional frameworks

Paramaribo

•Policies seem minimally engaged in managing the World Heritage Site

Port of Spain

•Weak regulations and negative attitudes about the existing environment •The Historic Preservation laws have never been implemented.

Sustainable historic districts must be understood a subset of sustainable management of urban

areas generally

Urban Management Issues in the Caribbean

• Climate change

• High vulnerability to natural hazards

• Economic fragility/vulnerability

• Weak legal and institutional capacity

• Limited technical capacity to undertake appropriate assessment and planning

• Poor data collection, management and information sharing

• Urban crime and insecurity

• Large informal economy and large informal housing and land sector

Urbanization in the Caribbean

• Latin America and the Caribbean is the most urbanized region in the world with 80% of their populations living in urban areas

UNHabitat 2012-State of Latin American and Caribbean Cities

• Over 70 percent of the Caribbean population currently live in urban settlements?

– These urban settlements are the centre for social, political, economic and environmental factors that increasingly shape developmental challenges and opportunities in the Caribbean

– Urbanization is low density, ill defined and sprawling

Generally there is no urban policy in the CARICOM Caribbean!

Defining a Caribbean Urban Agenda

TABLE 3: CARIBBEAN URBAN PRIORITIES

CARICOM UMP (PoS) Safer Cities programme LA21/SCP Localizing MDG PSUP

Safety and Security Disaster preparedness, Crime Crime, Safety, Violence Crime

Poverty & Deprivation HIV/AIDS and poverty Employment

Physical Living Conditions SWM SWM, Public Space,

Transport Access to drainage Basic servicesLand

Inequality AIDSHIV and Youth

Women and violence

Youth, Gender Education, HIV/AIDS

Gender/HIV/ inclusive city

Climate Change(contribution to) Green economy, Energy River degradation

Climate Change(vulnerability to) Disaster preparedness Disaster

Preparedness

Governance Participatory Governance

Citizen’s Participation Urban Governance

Sustainable planning

Local Economic Development

LiberalizationCSME

Priorities for a Caribbean Urban Agenda

Climate Change Strategy in the Caribbean

• Relatively high GHG generation per capita (especially Trinidad and Tobago) but small absolute amounts

• Mostly low lying coastal settlements at the forefront of sea level rise and enhances natural disasters

Emphasis on Adaptation versus Mitigation

Sustainable economic and environmental management in the Caribbean cities requires mitigation strategies around energy utilization

COTED Decisions

• Recommended that THE COTED:

• Endorse the formation of the Caribbean Professional Planners Association (CPPA), and encourage those Member States who do not have national professional planners associations to urgently establish these with the assistance of the UWI and existing national planning associations;

• Request the Caribbean Network for Urban Land Management (CNULM) - University of the West Indies (UWI) to provide a proposal on the CPPA operations which shall include issues of financing, standards and accreditation and mutual recognition of certificates;

• Request that in further developing, the CNLUM that the draft framework for the Caribbean urban agenda undergo a process of broad consultation by a wider representation of stakeholders including, inter alia, the built environment, environment, social scientists and crime and security experts in the Region;

• Endorse the mechanisms proposed to strengthen urban planning and management in the region, distilling and placing urban issues on the regional agenda.

COTED Decisions (cont’d)

• Endorse the convening of the Caribbean Urban Forum in 2012 with the widest possible stakeholder representation;

• Also request the convening at the earliest opportunity, of a Special Meeting of Ministers, with responsibility for physical development and urban affairs to address pressing urban development issues in the Region including inter alia, governance, tenure, climate change, crime prevention and citizen security, transportation;

• Request that the issue of urban revitalisation and renewal for social development, crime prevention and citizen security be included as an additional priority under Pillar 5 of the CARICOM Social Development and Crime Prevention Action Plan and that this be transmitted to the Council for Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) for further consideration and action

• Invite CNLUM to explore opportunities for collaboration with the safe cities programme being initiated by CDEMA

Recommendations - Port of Spain

• Discussion among all stakeholders on planning, policies and options for future scenarios.

• Case studies from successful Caribbean communities need to be compiled to demonstrate the methodologies, costs and laws that are working elsewhere in the region.

• A physical inventory of the built assets along with a revised set of policies and investment strategies, including international marketing, needs to be started.

• Government agencies should participate in the vision process and use the IDB ESCI framework to improve coordination, reduce overlap and set fiscal and policy priorities

Thanks for your attention!