“Getting local agricultural and environmental groups on the same page“. This is the motivation behind the launch of the inaugural Green Summit to be held this week at Foursqaure Rum Distillery and Heritage Park in St. Philip.

Under the theme, “Regenerating Together” the summit, sponsored by local organisation Slow Food Barbados, will witness a range of local grassroots and community organisations, ‘green‘ businesses and government agencies convene for the purpose of working towards a more integrated approach to local holistic and regenerative environmental and agricultural systems.

McNeel explains: “The Green Summit will work towards connecting all of the varied stewards, organisations, foundations, academics, and players within the regenerative agricultural and environmental movement taking place on the island. A priority for us at Slow Food Barbados is to weave them all together so that we are all cognisant of what the other is doing. It is hoped that the sharing of information will allow a defragmentation of efforts, joining all of the diverse clusters currently on the ground to focus our efforts towards similar goals rather than working autonomously and in isolated silos.”

Noting that each oragnisation makes significant contributions to local agriculture and environmental issues, McNeel was quick to point out the coordinating, rather than an amalgamating ethos of the summit.

He notes: “At the end of the day I believe it is imperative to maintain autonomy across the green community; however we need to avoid duplication of effort. We are continuously reinventing the wheel and dedicating both tangible and intangible resources such as financial capital and strategising towards similar objectives. Given these guaranteed convergences in initiatives and goals, we believe there are benefits to be derived from greater collaboration and resource-sharing. We believe there is a need to further build synergies, creating critical mass by working together through partnerships and particularly information, marketing and outreach sharing.”

McNeel also informed that the summit was particularly geared towards small non-governmental organisations and community grassroots groups to connect with relevant government agencies, international funding opportunities and the private sector.