The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the government of Mexico have established a fund to help fourteen Caribbean countries leverage additional financial support to make their agricultural systems more climate resilient:

Fourteen countries from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have agreed to boost their resilience and adaptation of agriculture, food systems and rural communities faced with climate change. In order to secure funds from international organizations to implement their plans, they’ve also agreed to design a series of rural agricultural projects capable of withstanding increased tropical storms, including hurricanes.

The planned projects come amid a new fund established by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, along with the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, or Amexcid.

Signed by FAO’s General Director, Jose Graziano da Silva, and Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Videgaray, the fund is slated to have an initial budget amounting to US$500,000, according to the Jamaica Observer. Each party will contribute an equal amount, US$250,000, to the fund.

The plan is that the initial investment serves as encouragement to mobilize millions more for the project.

“We already have the good news that the government of Canada is going to come on board with resources. And this is key because the challenge is enormous. We must recognize that the Caribbean is not generating climate change but that it is one of the most affected regions, so we all have the responsibility to contribute, ” Videgaray said.

Graziano da Silva expressed gratitude to the “support of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation.” As a result, “14 Caricom countries will design 27 projects to mobilize resources against climate change.”

Videgaray, for his part, explained “we all know that the Caribbean is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. We saw it in the last hurricane season when the islands of Dominica and Barbuda were practically destroyed.”

The CARICOM member states that will develop resilience and adaptation projects are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

Source: TeleSur.

[Image: OakleyOriginals]