Curtain comes down on Resilient Islands project
Stakeholders celebrate success in climate adaptation efforts
THE CURTAIN recently came down on the Resilient Islands (RI) project, with a reported 3,000 persons from the Dominican Republic, Grenada and Jamaica having benefited from efforts to boost their climate change adaptation capabilities.
The project was funded by the government of Germany, under the International Climate Initiative, and saw the collaboration of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
The closeout event, held in Panama on February 20 and 21, was done in celebration of the milestones crossed under the project, including training and education activities to advance naturebased solutions, as well as the adoption of tools to reduce risk and increase resilience at the community level.
In Jamaica, for example, there was collaboration with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management ( ODPEM) to develop an objective vulnerability-centred community prioritisation tool called the Modified Vulnerability Ranking Index.
“The modified tool now includes ecosystem considerations as aspects of vulnerability and was first utilised to select the Old Harbour Bay community in which the RI Project has been working. The JRC and TNC continue to provide funding and technical support for the augmenting and expansion of the Ranking Index by the ODPEM for greater national use and benefit,” the Jamaica Red Cross (JRC) has revealed through its website.
Also in Jamaica, the project reportedly assisted with “building the capacity of 65 government and other partner representatives through the provision of geographic information systems and drone mapping training, aimed at advancing risk-reduction efforts being made on behalf of local communities”.
This is together with the offer of decision-making support, including the activities undertaken at Old Harbour Bay, also in Jamaica. Among the efforts, there were drone and seafloor mapping of the community; hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity mapping of the area; as well as a knowledge, attitudes and practices survey.
Caribbean small island states, including the beneficiaries under the RI project, are among those most vulnerable to climate change risks and threats, which include rising global temperatures, extreme hurricanes and droughts, as well as impaired food and water security and compromised public health.
In response, countries – nationally, regionally and globally – have been making efforts to boost adaptation capacity, while also advancing mitigation through attention to a reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels, which fuel the warming of the planet and trigger the range of other climate impacts.