About the main project

“Strengthening Coastal and Marine Climate Resilience through Upland and Coastal Ecosystem-based Adaptation and Community Engagement” is a four country wide project funded by the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) EbA Facility, supported by the Government of Germany through the German Development Bank (KfW) with resources from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

‘The vetiver project’ as we call it in shortform is an exercise to identify and understand priority systems (in respect to Climate Change, including climate variability) that will add to (man’s) successful adaptation.

The communities selected are viewed as capable of supporting future adaptation activities, especially those created at project end.

The Tobago connection

Environment Tobago is a 24 year old, duly registered non-profit organisation with partial but strong focus on environmental education and a scientific, non-traditional (as in Climate Aware) approach to agriculture. We have signed on to provide logistical support to the IICA-EbA community and ecosystem targeted project. Essentially we are to plant 40,000 vetiver slips, engage the community in doing so, and build theirs and our capacity as we go. This dovetails with SDG 13’s target of ‘Building knowledge and capacity to better meet Climate Change’.

In short this closely matches the IICA-CBF EbA project’s work in vulnerable rural communities, which will be identifying and using resources that are familiar and available. Why vetiver? Teaching communities to grow vetiver, through managed systems and good practices seeks to ensure a reliable supply of this uniquely versatile plant for present project activities and for many others to use over time.