Agriculture is critical to the economies of the countries of the South-western Caribbean region. Increasing world demand for cash crops and the growth in competition for a share of global markets have resulted in significantly increased pesticide use in the sub-region. When not used in a proper way, agricultural pesticides pose an environmental threat. The contamination with highly toxic or persistent pesticides is associated with environmental risks and health hazards, both to humans and the coastal environment and its associated coastal economies.

With these problems in mind and considering the precautionary principle for approaches to marine environmental protection and resource conservation, a project idea was developed in 1998. This project was submitted to GEF for the financing with a Project Development Facility grant (PDF-B). In 2000, during this PDF-B, National Reports were produced on the status of pesticides use and pesticides management. The figures in these reports show that the region imported more than 14,600 metric tons of active ingredients of pesticides and formulated an additional 13,300 metric tons of active ingredients solely for agricultural use on close to 3 million hectares for 21 principal crops for the region. More detail on agricultural activity and the use of pesticides in the Southwestern Caribbean Region can be found in the Status Reports.

During PDF-B, little information could be gathered on the environmental impact of pesticides in the region. During the past decades, evaluations of the effects of pesticides on non-target organisms and their transport away from areas of application to soils and surface and ground waters have been carried out in many countries. Very little, however, has been done to systematically organize the information in the region under study.

The PDF-B, through the work of National Committees and through the completion of the National Reports, has demonstrated that a large number of national stakeholders, including governments (ministries of agriculture, environment and health), NGOs, scientific institutions and local communities are concerned about the potential environmental and health impacts of pesticide runoff. In the MCB countries, the government ministries, in co-operation with the private sector, are committed to improving the management and control of the use of pesticides. One of the key issues identified in the PDF-B phase was the benefit associated with demonstrations and training in the areas of alternative technologies or Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).

Based on the National Reports, a Regional Report was prepared and a full size project was developed and submitted to GEF in 2001. The project was endorsed by the governments of Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua and approved by the GEF council in 2002. The project could only take off by the end of 2006 and is projected to complete in December 2010.