38
their villages at the district consultative mapping
exercise. They went back to their communities
equipped with new knowledge, skills and strategies for addressing climate change adaptation.
They also worked together through community
networks to support each other to build their
capacity to adapt to the impact of climate change
at the community level.
Critical Lessons to Be Learned
from Implementing the Participatory
Mapping Exercise
The participatory mapping exercises provided
information on the impact of climate change and
calamities on the local communities in the past.
Therefore, besides participants providing validation of the climate change pressures impacting on
their communities and ranking these climate
change pressures in terms of their impact, they
provided a historical perspective on the extent of
the effect of time on human, economic and natural
resources. Participants also discussed the adaptive
strategies they have implemented to reduce the
impact of climate change on their communities.
Through discussions which led to the participatory climate risk/hazard vulnerability mapping
exercise, the participants were able to provide a
picture of the extent of the degradation over the
past 25–30 years. For example, the participants
were able to link the removal of coral reefs, mangroves swamps and dunes on some coastal communities to the building of tourism facilities,
housing and other infrastructures to coastal erosion caused by SLR and high tides and decline in
fish stocks. They also linked the clearing of the
forested area on the coast and interior of the
islands for agriculture (legal and illegal), housing
construction and community expansion purposes
to environmental problems such as landslides,
soil degradation and flooding of communities
lower downstream.
It was also necessary for participants to link
the various manifestations of climate change
impacts on the local community to the capacity
development and climate change adaptation initiatives that are implemented in the community to
help them adapt to the impact of climate change.
Participants spoke of building gabion baskets and
putting stones in them along riverbanks to prevent the river from eroding its banks and flooding
the communities lower downstream when there
are storms and torrential rains. Through community self-help activities, some communities have
organised tree planting initiatives along the riverbanks to stabilise it and protect their community
from flooding and landslides. Most of these
activities were implemented by young people
working with their communities, utilising a bottom- up approach.
Farmers employed mulching, contouring, terracing and other traditional farming practices to
enhance soil fertility by trapping moisture in the
soil during the dry season in order to reduce soil
erosion during the rainy season. During the rainy
season, communities like those on the islands of
the Grenadines such as Bequia would harvest the
water running off the roofs of their houses to use
for domestic and sanitary purposes such as washing, flushing toilets as well as feeding their animals and watering their crops during the dry
season. These climate change adaptation activities are also utilised at the community level on
mainland SVG.
The outcomes from the mapping exercises
were important. Thirty-six GIS maps were developed through the participatory risk vulnerability
mapping exercises with the Physical Planning
Division of the Ministry of Planning and
Sustainable
Development
and
National
Emergency Management Unit (NEMO). These
maps formed the first level of GIS vulnerability
risk maps developed in SVG. A series of capacitybuilding workshops in the communities that participated in the climate risk and vulnerability
mapping
exercises
were
implemented.
Participants were trained on how to use the information generated from the maps to reduce the
exposure from climate stressors and enhance the
capacity of the community to build resilience to
adapt to the impact of climate change. This work
involved the identification of the areas in the
community that are prone to the respective climate pressures and the development of climate
change adaptation activities to respond to climate
3 Implementation of the Conceptual Framework for Youth Adaption in Climate Change on SIDS
their villages at the district consultative mapping
exercise. They went back to their communities
equipped with new knowledge, skills and strategies for addressing climate change adaptation.
They also worked together through community
networks to support each other to build their
capacity to adapt to the impact of climate change
at the community level.
Critical Lessons to Be Learned
from Implementing the Participatory
Mapping Exercise
The participatory mapping exercises provided
information on the impact of climate change and
calamities on the local communities in the past.
Therefore, besides participants providing validation of the climate change pressures impacting on
their communities and ranking these climate
change pressures in terms of their impact, they
provided a historical perspective on the extent of
the effect of time on human, economic and natural
resources. Participants also discussed the adaptive
strategies they have implemented to reduce the
impact of climate change on their communities.
Through discussions which led to the participatory climate risk/hazard vulnerability mapping
exercise, the participants were able to provide a
picture of the extent of the degradation over the
past 25–30 years. For example, the participants
were able to link the removal of coral reefs, mangroves swamps and dunes on some coastal communities to the building of tourism facilities,
housing and other infrastructures to coastal erosion caused by SLR and high tides and decline in
fish stocks. They also linked the clearing of the
forested area on the coast and interior of the
islands for agriculture (legal and illegal), housing
construction and community expansion purposes
to environmental problems such as landslides,
soil degradation and flooding of communities
lower downstream.
It was also necessary for participants to link
the various manifestations of climate change
impacts on the local community to the capacity
development and climate change adaptation initiatives that are implemented in the community to
help them adapt to the impact of climate change.
Participants spoke of building gabion baskets and
putting stones in them along riverbanks to prevent the river from eroding its banks and flooding
the communities lower downstream when there
are storms and torrential rains. Through community self-help activities, some communities have
organised tree planting initiatives along the riverbanks to stabilise it and protect their community
from flooding and landslides. Most of these
activities were implemented by young people
working with their communities, utilising a bottom- up approach.
Farmers employed mulching, contouring, terracing and other traditional farming practices to
enhance soil fertility by trapping moisture in the
soil during the dry season in order to reduce soil
erosion during the rainy season. During the rainy
season, communities like those on the islands of
the Grenadines such as Bequia would harvest the
water running off the roofs of their houses to use
for domestic and sanitary purposes such as washing, flushing toilets as well as feeding their animals and watering their crops during the dry
season. These climate change adaptation activities are also utilised at the community level on
mainland SVG.
The outcomes from the mapping exercises
were important. Thirty-six GIS maps were developed through the participatory risk vulnerability
mapping exercises with the Physical Planning
Division of the Ministry of Planning and
Sustainable
Development
and
National
Emergency Management Unit (NEMO). These
maps formed the first level of GIS vulnerability
risk maps developed in SVG. A series of capacitybuilding workshops in the communities that participated in the climate risk and vulnerability
mapping
exercises
were
implemented.
Participants were trained on how to use the information generated from the maps to reduce the
exposure from climate stressors and enhance the
capacity of the community to build resilience to
adapt to the impact of climate change. This work
involved the identification of the areas in the
community that are prone to the respective climate pressures and the development of climate
change adaptation activities to respond to climate
3 Implementation of the Conceptual Framework for Youth Adaption in Climate Change on SIDS