Director, Sustainable Tourism Planning, Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, Earlston McPhee, addresses delegates at the Caribsave Partners Symposium at the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort, Monday, September 21. (BIS photo/Derek Smith)

Nassau , Bahamas -- According to a report published by the World Bank, The Bahamas is among the top three most vulnerable Caribbean countries when it comes to climate change.

For this reason, Minister of Tourism and Aviation, Sen. the Hon. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace said that initiatives such as CARIBSAVE are vital to mitigate possible environmental impacts.

Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace was the keynote speaker at the Caribsave Country Partners Symposium being held at the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort on September 21-22.

“There is no question that the Caribsave Partnership is of critical importance to the entire Caribbean region,” said Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace. “We know that we cannot run away from the issues of sea level rise, salt water intrusions, beach and shore erosion, and the many other impacts of climate change that confront us. Your presence here is a demonstration of your commitment to act before it’s too late.”

Caribsave is a partnership between the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the University of Oxford , which addresses the impacts and challenges surrounding climate change, tourism, the environment, economic development and the community livelihoods across the Caribbean .

Comprising seven core objectives, the Caribsave Partnership, with a projected budget of $35 million over five years, focuses on sectoral, destinational and national vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessments and strategy development.

In addition, the initiative focuses on socio-economic and environmental policies and implementation, the impacts of climate change on key sectors and their integral relationship to tourism in the Caribbean, the development of carbon offset projects and carbon neutral destination status and capacity building and skills transfer across the Caribbean.

Minister of Tourism and Aviation, Sen. the Hon. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace delivers the keynote address at the Caribsave Partners Symposium at the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort, Monday, September 21. (BIS photo/Derek Smith).

In the case of The Bahamas, the island of Eleuthera will be used for the case study.

Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace said that the World Bank report revealed that a five-metre change in sea level rise could result in damage to the economy that amounts to 3.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Suriname .

“In the case of The Bahamas, it estimates that the same level of sea rise would result in a decline in The Bahamas’ GDP by more than 2.5 per cent and almost 2.5 per cent for Guyana .

The Minister added that these estimates are considered conservative since they include only the damage in zones that would be inundated by the rise. In addition, he said, they do not include damage from storm surges, and they use existing patterns of development and land use not taking into account the “considerable” development that may occur in years to come.

The two-day workshop featured presentations by a cross-section of stakeholders in the Caribbean and the University of Oxford, including Earlston McPhee, Director, Sustainable Tourism Planning, Ministry of Tourism and Aviation; Dr. Murray, Co-Director Caribsave Partnership and Senior Research Associate, University of Oxford; Dr. Ulric (Neville) Trotz, Co-Director Caribsave; Simone Bannister, Climate Change Advisor; Gloria de Mees, Director of Sustainable Tourism Directorate; Gail Henry, Sustainable Tourism Product Specialist.