Adaptation of Rural Economies and Natural Resources to Climate Change

Objective: The adaptive capacity of rural economies, in particular with regards to agriculture and forestry, is enhanced.

Approach

Climate change is a dynamic, complex process with sudden and erratic effects. Promising adaptation measures thus have to be flexible and resilient.

The project is active in eight of the 15 CARICOM member states. Target groups include the local communities and the various civil society organisations, e.g. for farmers, fishermen, employees in the tourism industry and small and medium-sized business owners. The project’s lead executing agency is the CARICOM Secretariat with its Council of Ministers for agriculture, rural development and climate change. Support includes advisory services, training, procurement of material goods as well as financing and assistance agreements, local subsidies and the establishment of dialogue platforms to implement the measures for adaptation to climate change impacts.

In 2013 the project received unexpected, substantial start-up funding. These funds were primarily used to lay the groundwork for infrastructure measures: for adaptation of the drinking water supply to climate change impacts and for wastewater disposal in coastal zones to safeguard protected upstream marine areas. The financing and assistance agreements for implementation were supplemented by a feasibility study on sustainable sediment management of drinking water reservoirs. This study assesses improved measures to maintain reservoirs when adapting to climate change impacts (increase in the variability of rainfall).

Application of RISE - training held in Grenada from November 3^rd through 8^th 2014

RISE serves the holistic evaluation of the sustainability of agricultural production at farm level. The vision of RISE is to contribute to more sustainable agricultural production by helping disseminate the philosophy and practice of sustainable farming. This shall be achieved by making sustainability more measurable, tangible and communicable at farm level. By pin-pointing sustainability potentials and deficits, classical economy-focused farm management is complemented by the environmental and social dimension. Our target group includes all stakeholders in agriculture, society, administration and business who share this vision.

Adaptation of Rural Economies and Natural Resources to Climate Change

For information about specific activities, please select a country page:

Belize	Dominica	Grenada	Guyana	Jamaica	St. Kitts & Nevis	Saint Lucia	St. Vincent and the Grenadines