At the end of May, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) participated in the Communities, Conservation & Livelihoods Conference, an international event co-hosted by the Community Conservation Research Network (CCRN) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This year’s meeting, which was attended by over 400 participants took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Joth Singh, the Ecosystem-based Adaptation Facility Programme Manager, represented the CBF and delivered a presentation entitled ‘The Caribbean Biodiversity Fund: A Civil Society led Partnership Financing and Conservation Model for Coastal Natural Resources Management in the Caribbean’, as part of a session focused on innovative financing.
The meeting was a good opportunity to discuss and learn how local communities across the globe are engaging in environmental conservation supporting sustainable livelihoods, and how they can be best supported in policy and in practical programs, such as the CBF EbA Facility.
The EbA Facility will launch its first Call for Proposals later this year and will provide funding for projects which will support rehabilitation and restoration of degraded marine and coastal ecosystems, and improved management of protected areas which contribute to climate change ecosystem based adaptation. A common feature of these projects must be linkages to community engagement and benefits in reducing climate risks, creating greater understanding, capacity and participation among the people most affected by climate change, and that most depend on natural resources and ecosystem services.
The EbA Facility is a 5-year sinking fund with initial funding of 25 million Euros provided by the German Government through the German Development Bank (KfW). It is managed by the CBF and is part of the Caribbean Sustainable Finance Architecture, an innovative regional arrangement to mobilize financial resources for conserving the Caribbean’s natural resources and for promoting sustainable development in the region.
