Project : Caribbean research call
Project : Caribbean research call
Climate change is one of the most serious challenges to the development of the Caribbean region, and the region’s population of about 40 million people is among the most vulnerable to the consequences of global warming.
In 2007, the Caribbean Community Heads of States issued a political declaration on the fight of the Caribbean nations against climate change and its effects. Following this declaration, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) prepared a Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change. Based on the priority areas and research needs identified in the Regional Framework, the CDKN-supported implementation plan developed a regional strategy and detailed road map for coping with climate change following a ten-month consultative process with governments, private sector, civil society and donors.
The Caribbean Research Call then emerged as a demand-driven response to the research needs identified in the implementation plan, with the aim of commissioning high quality and innovative research for the Caribbean to lay a sound evidence-base for future climate change mitigation and adaptation. Subsequently, five projects in Belize, Jamaica, St Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago were selected and implemented by CDKN and its Caribbean partners:
Implemented in St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, this project aimed to increase civil society engagement in policy and institutional analysis for climate change adaptation.
This project used modelling to assess the potential impacts of climate change on the supply and demand for water and water quality in Belize across different climate change and land use scenarios, and in so doing, determined the hydrographic areas most vulnerable to climate change.
This project aimed to improve flood models and use information from past extreme rainfall events to create maps which illustrate future flood risk. Its goal was to model extreme events and create five, ten and twenty-five-year flood inundation maps for both present and future climate projections.
This project assessed the vulnerability of Belize’s tourism system to climate change, including the coastal ecosystems on which it depends, and examined how current policies serve to facilitate or hinder climate-compatible tourism development, based on healthy coastal ecosystems.
This project aimed to increase the dialogue between farmers and researchers in the Caribbean to provide better information on the likely future impacts of climate change and the potential of local crops to withstand these changes. It also sought to establish a set of protocols that can be used to screen tropical plants for resilience to drought and heat stress and create models to help visualize the various ways that climate change could impact current crop production.
The focus on inclusive regional participation and on stakeholder demands right from the start of the entire process, as well as within the individual projects, ensured that the Research Call is in line with a coherent CCD agenda in the Caribbean and increases the potential impact that these programmes can have on the climate change resilience of Caribbean states and people.
Partners:
Caribbean Natural Resource Institute (CANARI)
Environmental Research Institute (ERI) of the University of Belize
Department of Geography and Geology, Mona Campus, University of the West Indies (UWI)
World Wildlife Fund, (WWF) Belize
Department of Life Sciences, St. Augustine Campus, University of the West Indies (UWI)
Management: CARIBSAVE
CDKN Funding: £500,000