Bellevue Farmers from Saint Lucia discussing the situation of the reefs and the role of agriculture with the rangers of the Soufriere Marine Management Area
Participants at the Planning Workshop in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Coast Guard, Forestry Department, and the Ministry of Agriculture assessing priorities for the adaptation to climate change
Consultation with the North-East Farmers Organisation in New Hampshire, Grenada. How are farmers affected by the impacts of climate change and what can they do to withstand these effects?
FAO; CARDI, UWI and other stakeholders in Jamaica reflecting on adaptation measures to climate change in agriculture and forestry during the planning workshop in June 2014
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the German government are supporting the efforts of eight CARICOM member states to adapt the management of their natural resources and economies to the ever-pressing and far-reaching socio-economic and environmental impacts of climate change.
In an effort to strengthen the national capacities to mitigate the adverse effects of an altering changing climate, which inevitably impacts small islands and low-lying coastal states the most, the key objectives of the joint CARICOM-German government support are two-fold: (i) to conserve the unique marine biodiversity of the Caribbean Sea, and (ii) to foster the development and adoption of good practices and adaptive measures in agriculture, forestry, and water/wastewater management.
The main target groups include governmental and non-governmental organizations, national farmers and fisherfolk organizations, the tourism industry, water utilities and small and medium sized businesses.
To deliver on the CARICOM-German government partnership, the regional development programme titled Caribbean Aqua-Terrestrial Solutions (CATS) was formulated. The CATS Programme, headed by Dr Horst Vogel (GIZ), operates through a marine component, namely CATS-2, which focuses on the conservation of the marine biodiversity and coastal protection, and a terrestrial component, CATS-1, which leads all projects related to adaptive measures in agriculture, forestry, and water/wastewater management.
The CATS programme is executed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German federal ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ) and by the Environmental Health and Sustainable Development Department of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on behalf of CARICOM.
CATS adopts a 'ridge-to-reef' approach that follows many of the lessons learnt and approaches from the GEF-funded integrating watershed and coastal areas management (GEF-IWCAM) project -- guided by a deep understanding that agricultural, forestry and water/wastewater management operations upstream exert a direct influence on coastal and marine ecosystems.
CATS-2 focuses on marine protected areas (MPAs) in five Eastern Caribbean countries, namely, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Hence, in keeping with the integrated watershed and coastal areas management 'ridge-to-reef' approach, CATS-1 centres its activities on the watersheds upstream, adjacent to the respective MPAs.
Additionally, CATS-1 supports adaptive measures in agriculture, forestry, and water management in Jamaica, Belize and Guyana. Between April and June 2014, CATS-1's principal advisor, Eva Maria Näher (GIZ), organised and conducted two-day planning workshops with various stakeholders from the agricultural, water and forestry sectors in the five CARICOM member states of Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The aim was to identify priorities with regard to adaptation measures to climate change in agriculture and forestry and to formulate an operational plan for each country.
As part of the two-day workshops, the stakeholders participated in field visits to the MPAs and adjacent watersheds for on-the-spot discussions on the linkages between agricultural and other land use a