One-day workshop on climate change ends successfully

Climate change in the Caribbean has become one of the most debated topics in recent times, following the passage of several storms that have caused destruction to many countries, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).{{more}}

In an effort to ensure SVG’s readiness for the continuously changing weather patterns, a one-day workshop was conducted on Tuesday October 4, by the Nature Conservancy, a US-based organization with an office in St. Croix.

The workshop, which was held under the theme “Environmental Workshop on Coastal Resilience and Climate Change”, was held at the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Edinboro and was attended by participants from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and Government agencies, as well as Community-based Organizations (CBO).

These included representatives from National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO), Fisheries, Forestry and the department of Environment.

The one-day seminar was the starting point of a three-year project organized by ‘At the Water’s Edge’ (AWE), in conjunction with Nature Conservancy for the Eastern Caribbean. The initiative is being undertaken in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as well as Grenada, and has as its aim to increase the resilience of both countries to climate change.

The first in the series of workshops was conducted in Grenada on September 28.

According to the Director for the Nature Conservancy for the Eastern Caribbean Program, Ruth Blyther, the objective of the workshop was building partnership between the local agencies and her organization.

“This will help us to collect information and understand more what … St. Vincent and the Grenadines wants to get out of this project that will be running for the next three years,” the Director added.

She also stated that it was very important to host the workshop here.

“It’s always a challenge because you have so many issues that you are constantly dealing with. Just recently, you (SVG) had some flooding and flooding is a continuing issue. Then, there are the issues of a lot of coastline erosion and places that used to have beaches are disappearing…

Part of what we are doing is getting the detailed information. This will then give us a better prediction of what is going to occur in the future and where those places are that are most vulnerable and by identifying these, we can then reduce the risk,” she explained.

Facilitator for the workshop was Vera Agostini, a Senior Scientist for the Nature Conservancy.(AA)