WACC is supporting a project that aims to increase public knowledge about the causes and effects of global warming in Haiti, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia.

The project will do so by increasing the “quantity and quality of information exchange” among agroecological organizations and alternative communication organizations in these countries and educating the public about how agroecological projects are responding to the causes and effects of global warming.

An inventory will be conducted of the best agroecological practices, as well as alternative communication organizations that exist in each of the three countries. These practices will be documented in video, audio or text formats in the native languages, and translated into at least one major regional language (English, Dutch, French or Spanish), and uploaded on the WACC Caribe website.

“WACC is proud to support the establishment of this network as part of our efforts to advance climate justice,” said Lorenzo Vargas, WACC programme manager for Communication for Social Change. “Grassroots communities across the Caribbean are among the most affected by the effects of climate change, and need to have access to platforms so they can promote their own solutions and help shape climate policies.”

The Folk Research Centre, a repository for cultural heritage, a vehicle for research, study, recording and promulgating Saint Lucia’s rich heritage, is implementing the project on behalf of WACC Caribe. WACC Caribe embarked on the project following discussions about the role of community organizations in responding to causes and effects of global warming.

It noted that the overall impact of climate change on the health, infrastructure and economy of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean are “not only higher, but cumulative, uneven, and many times exceeding the size of their own economies,” citing a study which noted that “in 1990-2014 period, damage as a percentage of GDP was six times higher for the countries of the Caribbean and disasters occurred with seven times more frequency compared to other states.”

Photo above by Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance: Benjamin Isier uses a hoe to prepare his field for planting high in the mountains near Les Palmes, a rural village in southern Haiti. Haiti’s denuded hillsides have left residents throughout the island nation more vulnerable to flooding and landslides.

Pictures of the Hurricane Matthew in low resolution sent by Christian Aid.Important: Photos sent to CA via a clearing system and therefore could be from a number of sites in Haiti. At this time, we don’t know where.