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CARICOM and Oxford University launch Caribsave Project

GREATER GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Oxford University Centre for the Environment (OUCE) and the Caribbean Community Centre for Climate Change (CCCCC) have formed a partnership to address the impacts and challenges surrounding climate change, the environment, tourism and related sectors throughout the Caribbean region. The project is multi-sectoral, multi-objective and multi-donor in nature and is known as CARIBSAVE.

Comprising seven objectives, the project focuses on: sectoral and destinational modelling; vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessments; socio-economic analyses; analysis of the impacts of climate change on key sectors and their integral relationship to tourism in the Caribbean (i.e. water, energy, biodiversity, agriculture, human health, disaster risk management and infrastructure); the development of carbon offset projects and carbon neutral destination status; and capacity building activities across the Caribbean basin.

The project will secure approximately US$35 Million over a 3–5 year period to achieve its aims and will provide a sustained and enduring approach to dealing with the challenges presented to the Caribbean and its tourism sector by climate change.

The project has received seed funding from the British Government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), and anticipates more significant funds from Oxford University’s worldwide connections and the UK Department of International Development (DFID) in the next few weeks and has the support of the Association of Caribbean States, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (see letters) and a range of other international and regional organizations across the public and private sectors.

The environment, tourism and its associated sectors are vital drivers for social and economic development in individual island states and in the Caribbean region as a whole, and are critical factors for sustainable livelihoods across the region. This pragmatic project, and the partnerships formed as result of the shared vision, will reduce the vulnerabilities of the Caribbean to climate change.

The project will enhance the resilience of the region’s nation states, their economies and the livelihoods of its communities to climate change. This will be achieved by comprehensively addressing the multifarious sectors and the complex interrelationships that coexist in the climate change, tourism and environment nexus.

The vision for the CARIBSAVE Project is longevity; a sustained and comprehensive approach to address the challenges of climate change in the tourism and related sectors across the Caribbean, in nations and at destinational level in perpetuity, with scope for evolution and refinement.

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