Jamaica taps into Adaptation Fund

Petre Williams-Raynor in the Jamaica Observer: Jamaica recently won the endorsement of the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) for the implementation of a programme designed to strengthen the island's capacity to deal with climate change.

The board gave the go-ahead for the programme —v Enhancing Resilience of the Agriculture Sector and Coastal Areas to Protect Livelihoods and Improve Food Security — at its 14th meeting, held in Bonn, Germany between June 21 and 22. As such, US$9.995 million has been earmarked for the programme, making Jamaica the first in the Caribbean to benefit from the fund, which was set up to finance adaptation projects in the developing world.

However, before the island can make full use of the funds, it will have to complete a full proposal on the programme, which has as its objectives:

• increasing the climate resilience of the Negril coastline;
• enhancing the climate resilience of the agriculture sector by improving water and land management in select communities; and
• improving institutional and local level capacity for sustainable management of the natural resources in disaster risk reduction in the targeted vulnerable areas.