Port of Spain, August 18, 2023 –The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) launched the Caribbean Resilience Knowledge Platform which serves as an online hub to support knowledge sharing, learning and collaboration among civil society organisations and their public and private sector partners to scale up action for climate justice and resilience across the region.For over a decade, CANARI has been working with civil society organisations and frontline communities to strengthen local capacity and actions to tackle the climate crisis, including raising climate change awareness and advocacy for climate justice, assessing vulnerability to climate impacts, local action planning and taking practical steps to adapt and mitigate. These civil society organisations include regional and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations, resource user groups, cooperatives and other local associations and grassroots networks. 

Dr. Ainka Granderson, CANARI’s Senior Technical Officer and Resilience Lead, noted that, “Caribbean civil society is well placed to lead ‘bottom up’ approaches that benefit the most vulnerable, and to work with the public and private sector to design and deliver effective climate solutions. And we need support to scale up this impact if we really want to address the climate crisis and build resilience across the region.” 

The Caribbean Resilience Knowledge Platform seeks to catalyse and facilitate enhanced support for civil society organisations through raising awareness about their work, including best practices and innovations to inspire further action and advocacy, as well as sharing of relevant tools and resources to help build capacity. The platform also seeks to share information to foster collaboration among civil society and with the public and private sector to further mobilise knowledge, resources and funding to support climate justice and resilience.

The platform’s virtual launch and live demo took place on August 2, 2023, at the virtual regional dialogue on “Enhancing Civil Society Engagement and Climate Action in the Caribbean” convened by CANARI and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). This dialogue brought together over 85 representatives from civil society, national governments, the private sector and development partners to review and discuss strategies for enhancing civil society’s role and expanding multi-stakeholder engagement in climate action and building resilience in the region.

Development of the platform was led by CANARI, with funding from the Green Climate Fund, Inter American Foundation and Open Society Foundations. 

Visit the Caribbean Resilience Knowledge Platform at: https://resiliencecanari.org/ 

Contact us if you want to support and contribute to expanding this platform as we’re actively seeking contributions from CSOs and their public and private sector partners that are working on climate justice and building resilience. 

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About CANARI: The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) is a regional technical non-profit institute which has been working across the Caribbean islands for 30 years. Our mission is to promote and facilitate stakeholder participation in the stewardship of natural resources in the Caribbean. Our work focuses on Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Equity and Justice, Participatory Governance, and Resilience. See here for more information: http://www.canari.org/