Caricom has joined with Oxford University’s Centre for the Environment to form CARIBSAVE, a US$35M project aimed at addressing the impacts and challenges of climate change and related sectors in the region.
According to a press release it will also address the environment and tourism. The Caribbean Community Centre for Climate Change is collaborating with Oxford on the “multi-sectoral, multi-objective and multi-donor” project. It comprises seven objectives and focuses on sectoral and destinational modelling; vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessments; socio-economic analyses, analysis of the impacts of climate change on key sectors and their integral relationship to tourism in the Caribbean (i.e. water, energy, biodiversity, agriculture, human health, disaster risk management and infrastructure) the development of carbon offset projects and carbon neutral destination status and capacity-building activities Region-wide.
The project will secure about US$35M over a three to five year period to achieve its aims. It will provide “a sustained and enduring approach to dealing with the challenges presented to the Caribbean and its tourism sector by climate change.” It has received seed funding from the British government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and anticipates more significant funds from Oxford University’s worldwide connections and the UK Department for International Development in the coming weeks. The Association of Caribbean States, the United Nations Environment Pro-gramme and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation along with other international and regional organisations across the public and private sectors also support the project.
According to Caricom the environment, tourism and its associated sectors are vital drivers for social and economic development in individual island states and in the wider Caribbean and are critical factors for sustainable livelihoods across the Region.
The release said too the project will reduce the vulnerabilities of the Caribbean to climate change and it will enhance the resilience of the Region’s nation states, their economies and the livelihoods of their communities.
