THE Public Gardens Division in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries will today be hosting a green expo at the Castleton Botanical Gardens, in St Mary.

It will be staged under the World Earth Day theme ‘Environmental and Climate Change Literacy’.Speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’ on Wednesday, superintendent of the division, Demoy Nash, said although World Earth Day has passed, the agency is hosting the expo to acknowledge the importance of Earth Day and to provide information.“We are a regulated body for the public gardens, which means that we are responsible for the preservation, maintenance and conservation of a little piece of the earth, in these public gardens. We want the citizens to understand their role in caring for the Earth through these gardens, so this is our way of recognising the national day,” Nash shared.He noted that the expo, which is scheduled to last from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, will have several representatives from environmental agencies making presentations based on the theme, speaking about climate change, and other Earth-related topics.The superintendent encouraged the public to visit the expo, adding that there will be a number of activities for community members, and a children’s village to keep patrons engaged and informed.Botanist and education officer of the division, Judeen Meikle, said the agency is using the theme of World Earth Day to realise the international goal to achieve global climate and environmental literacy in three years’ time, by Earth Day 2020.“Jamaica is an important biodiversity and conservation site, and this refers to protected areas and/or reserves, seed banks, botanic gardens, zoos… so the division, through the expo, wants to ensure that global climate and environmental literacy is attained by 2020. This event is one medium being used to spread the need and the word about how important green spaces are to the Earth and why we need to protect these places and what it means for the continuation of the Earth,” she said.Guest speaker for the expo will be principal director of the Climate Change Division in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Una May Gordon, who will be doing a presentation on projects that Jamaica has embarked on as part of the country’s climate change mitigation activities to preserve the Earth.“This presentation will be a special one, because we want people to understand what climate change is and the impact it has on our natural habitat, the Earth,” she said.Meikle said the water catchment facility in the area will be reopened, which will aid significantly with irrigation.