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.