Climate Change experts from the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico are in Belize for a regional seminar to discuss how nature can help to mitigate the effects of this global problem.
Climate change is no longer just a concept that only scientists are studying. It is a real issue and this year's drought, with the tens of millions of dollars in losses to Belizean farmers, is a vivid example of how climate change can have major negative impacts right here at home.
So, these experts who have congregated in Belize are examining natural remedies for the effects of climate change. The discussion is being hosted by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Center.
We stopped by the Biltmore for the first day of the discussions, and we spoke with a few of the organizers:
Alrick Trotz - Deputy Executive Director, CCCCC
"Belize, like all of our countries in the Caribbean, is a signatory to 2 conventions, as a matter of fact, 3 of them: the Convention on Biodiversity, the Climate Change Convention, also the Convention on Desertification. There are certain actions on those 3 conventions that basically speaks to the same thing. And this is what we refer to as ecosystem-based adaptation. For us in climate change, adaptation means taking measures to strengthen the resilience of our coastal areas, our water systems, our agricultural systems. Now if you look at the coastal areas, normally in the past, we would focus on the physical structures: seawalls, grounds, etc. But recently, we came to realize that there is also a complement activity, which makes sense, which we call ecosystem-based adaption. [We're] looking at our mangroves, maintaining them and restoring them, where they are degraded, or coral reefs, our seagrass, because all these basically, protect our coast, and provide that type of services, but livelihoods for our communities."
Tristan Tyrrell - Representative, SwedBio
"The dialog this week is about trying to look at how we can use nature, the value of nature, in helping us to adapt and mitigate against climate change."
"The reality is that climate is happening. We can stop it, or we won't stop it quickly enough that it won't have an impact on people's economy, their personal economy, their national economy. And so, it's looking at how we can recognize the value of nature, how we can help to conserve and restore nature, that it will provide those benefits, and provide that resilience, both to people, but also the economy."
Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer
"We have had a discussion on what is called eco-system based approaches, that deal with landscape management, that integrate mitigation and adaptation for climate change but also taking into account, the conservation of the natural resources that would benefit stakeholders, Belizeans at this particular point, and as well, other regional actors."
The 4-day seminar continues tomorrow and ends on Thursday.
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