The IICA Delegation in Saint Lucia hosted the first Climate Smart Agriculture Forum (CSAF) for the Caribbean in 2016.
February 17th 2016. The IICA Delegation in Saint Lucia hosted the first Climate Smart Agriculture Forum (CSAF) for the Caribbean in 2016.The CSAF was launched in 2015 under IICA’s Resilience Flagship Project as a mechanism to raise awareness of best practices promoting and supporting Caribbean climate smart agriculture and to provide a space for dialogue among relevant actors on meaningful actions for making agriculture more resilient to climate change.
The first forum focused on the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Paris and its implications for the Agricultural Sector in Saint Lucia.
While agreeing that the COP 21 Paris Agreement sets the stage for operationalizing stakeholder-focused interventions in the Caribbean, what remains critical for Saint Lucia is to specify its priorities and principles for action so that coordinated action can take place. Doing so was seen as important to helping communicate an accurate picture of the country’s focus for climate change adaptation to international partners so that appropriate measures can be taken, as well as in translating principles into meaningful action that local beneficiaries/stakeholders can see and gain from.
The conversation on agriculture specifically noted that while agriculture was not prominently identified in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, the Saint Lucia National Climate Change Policy and Adaptation Plan had much to say about agriculture’s contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation. National discussions identified a number of areas for focus including improving data collection and management systems to inform on policy/decision-making on climate change adaptation and mitigation, making local agri-food systems more productive (including waste reduction) and developing/adopting renewable energy systems that reduce costs and emissions in the long-run.
Discussions with partners from the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Production, Fisheries, Cooperatives and Rural Development agreed that the establishment of a multi-stakeholder and bi-partisan National Designated Authority (NDA) is a critical precursor to effectively accessing available resources mechanisms for climate change adaptation. The meeting participants agreed to support such a process and expressed their thanks to IICA for facilitating the dialogue forum which was deemed very informative and needful.
The feature presenter, Mr. D’Auvergne, Chief Sustainable Development and Environment Officer of the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology had this to say at the end of the national dialogue “I truly believe that IICA is on to something with the Climate Smart process and I would be happy to assist further, where possible”.
