The Barbados leg of the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Multi-country Soil Management Initiative for Integrated Landscape Restoration and Sustainable Food Systems Phase 1 (CSIDS-SOILCARE Phase 1) project is set to get under way later this month.
The regional project will be launched in Barbados on Wednesday, October 26, at the Soil Conservation Unit (SCU), Haggatts, St. Andrew, at 10:00 a.m. Minister of the Environment and National Beautification with responsibility for the green and blue economy, Adrian Forde, will be among the featured speakers.
It will be executed within the National Park of Barbados, with the Natural Heritage Department (NHD) under the Ministry of the Environment, serving as the national executing entity, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security. The SCU and the Nature Fun Ranch will function as satellite locations within the project site of the National Park.
The project’s objectives are to strengthen Caribbean SIDS with the necessary tools for adopting policies, measures and best practices to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 15.3.
It has five components which cover a range of areas, including establishing, updating and strengthening national and regional soils information, technical capacity and coordination as a basis for improved decision making on LDN, and addressing the drivers of land degradation through the rehabilitation of land and soil degraded areas.
With an anticipated duration of 48 months, the project is being done in partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the NHD and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security. Meanwhile, the Partnership Initiative for Sustainable Land Management is the regional executing agency.
Funding is being provided through the participating countries’ allocation in the GEF System for Transparent Allocation of Resources (STAR) within the seventh replenishment period of the GEF Trust Fund (GEF-7).
Barbados’ STAR allocation for GEF-7 totals US$4 million, of which US$1 million is for climate change; US$2 million for biodiversity, and US$1 million for land degradation.
The project was already launched in Antigua, Grenada, Haiti, Guyana, and St. Lucia. It is also expected to be launched in Jamaica and Belize.