Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribbean Small Island Developing States

Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribbean Small Island Developing States: Integrating Local and External Knowledge

Abstract: Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are vulnerable to climate change impacts including sea level rise, invasive species, ocean acidification, changes in rainfall patterns, increased temperatures, and changing hazard regimes including hurricanes, floods and drought. Given high dependencies in Caribbean SIDS on natural resources for livelihoods, a focus on ecosystems and their interaction with people is essential for climate change adaptation. Increasingly, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approaches are being highlighted as an approach to address climate change impacts. Specifically, EbA encourages the use of local and external knowledge about ecosystems to identify climate change adaptation approaches. This paper critically reviews EbA in Caribbean SIDS, focusing on the need to integrate local and external knowledge. An analysis of current EbA in the Caribbean is undertaken alongside a review of methodologies used to integrate local and external expertise for EbA. Finally key gaps, lessons learnt and suggested ways forward for EbA in Caribbean SIDS and potentially further afield are identified. Download

Many Strong Voices Releases Paper on Ecosystem-based Climate Change Adaptation in Caribbean SIDS

August 2012: Many Strong Voices (MSV), a collaboration between coastal communities in the Arctic and small island developing States (SIDS) that seeks to promote action on climate change, has released a paper titled “Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribbean Small Island Developing States: Integrating Local and External Knowledge.”

The paper underscores that Caribbean SIDS are vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as: sea level rise; invasive species; ocean acidification; changes in rainfall patterns; increased temperatures; and changing hazard regimes including hurricanes, floods and drought. Noting the high dependency in Caribbean SIDS on natural resources for livelihoods, it calls for a focus on ecosystems and their interaction with people in order to adapt to climate change.

The paper reviews ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in Caribbean SIDS, focusing on the integration of local and external knowledge. It highlights key gaps, lessons learned and suggests ways forward for ecosystem-based adaptation in Caribbean SIDS, and potentially further afield.

Partners of MSV include: the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC); the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP); the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/GRID-Arendal; the Organization of American States, Department of Sustainable Development (OAS DSD); UNEP Regional Office for North America (RONA); the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC); as well as NGOs and indigenous peoples organizations. [Publication: Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Caribean SIDS. More

 

As the poles melt, we drown

At the “International Polar Year 2012 Conference” in Montreal Ronald Jumeau, Ambassador for Climate Change for the Government of the Seychelles, talked about “Poles and Global Linkages”. I want to document his remarkable presentation with this Iceblog. It shows that climate changes isn´t something abstract, but touches the lifes of many people. I thank Mr. Jumeau for allowing me to document his speech:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Sitting here listening to the different speeches and presentations since this morning, I wonder whether I came to this conference just to be terrified.

You see, the worse the situation gets at the two poles, in the Arctic and the Antarctic, the more worried we islanders get — and the more frantic we are going to get — on the islands of the globe, including the SIDS, the small island developing states, of the tropics like Seychelles.

For the more your ice melts in the north and the south, and on the mountain tops and in the glaciers of the world, the more our world, in tiny Seychelles just 4 degrees south of the Equator and in the rest of the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Caribbean as well, the more our world goes under.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, as the poles melt, we drown…

And it’s not just about sea level rise being made worse and worse the more land ice melts at the poles and from the mountains and glaciers of the world and flows into the sea. Too often when people think of small islands and climate change, they think only of sea level rise…

But it is not just about that, as serious and as frightening it indeed is: the melting ice at the poles is not just contributing to sea level rise, it is affecting the oceans as drivers of the world’s climate as well. And don’t forget, while we may be the smallest countries in the world, many of us make up huge ocean territories.

So true, the seas around our islands, some of which are the lowest land on Earth, are rising, and coastal erosion is getting worse and worse to the extent that some islands may be swept away before the waves cover them and wipe them off the face of the Earth…

But it is also true that our own climate and weather, a world away from the polar regions, are changing because of what is happening to the oceans.

Let me give you an example from my own country Seychelles, where incidentally we are blowing up the granite of our mountains to get rocks to protect and save our beaches so bad is the coastal erosion. More