Innovative Nature-based Solutions to Enhance Community Resilience in Grenada (ING)

This project aims to build ecological and community resilience using nature-based solutions in the two largest countries in the insular Caribbean, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Both countries have similar habitat types and face similar threats to key coastal and marine habitats that provide essential ecosystem services for food, income and the health of persons living in adjacent communities. Project activities aim to rehabilitate coastal ecosystems affected by storms and sea level rise; restore functional hydrology to mangrove systems after years of degradation from traditional agricultural practices and urban development; replenish coral reef habitats which are threatened by warmer waters; storm damage and disease and deliver innovative solutions to large scale Sargassum influxes which compromise beach quality and destroy coastal ecosystems including seagrasses and coral reefs.

Strategic EbA plans will be developed for target sites in the two countries using a community-centric participatory approach addressing mangrove restoration, Sargassum composting, and coral restoration. Enhancing coastal and marine habitats through establishing nurseries and outplanting mangroves and coral fragments help to enhance resilience in the medium to long term, by improving habitats and enhancing ecosystem services such as coastal defence and trapping/processing nutrients before flowing out to the ocean. With Sargassum composting, local farmers will be supported in applying adapted production techniques and optimizing value chains of agricultural systems by providing a low-cost option that can be used in the production of high-value organic crops. This helps to reduce threats to the waterways as it reduces the need for petroleum-based fertilizers that negatively affect water quality and degrades ecosystems.