From Jamaica Observer

SANTIAGO, Chile (CMC) – Jamaica is among 14 Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states which will design multiple projects to mobilise resources from international sources that will allow them to improve the resilience and adaptation of agriculture, food systems and rural communities to change climate.

The projects stem from a new fund created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID).

The agreement, signed in Rome last week by Director General of the FAO José Graziano da Silva, and Luis Videgaray, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, created the fund which will have an initial budget of US$500,000, contributed in equal parts of US$250,000.

This capital will be used as a pre-investment resource that will mobilise millions of dollars for resilience and adaptation projects.

“Thanks to the support of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, 14 Caricom countries will design 27 projects to mobilise resources against climate change,” explained Graziano da Silva.

“We all know that the Caribbean is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. We saw it in the last hurricane season, when the islands of Dominica and Barbuda were practically destroyed,” said Videgaray during the signing.

The countries that will develop the projects are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

For more on this story go to: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/ja-among-14-caricom-countries-preparing-projects-to-mobilise-green-funds-_136239?profile=1373

IMAGE: AMEXCID logo