The world must take action to improve food security, which is at risk due to conflict and climate change. Credit, Busani Bafana/IPS
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Oct 15 2024 (IPS) – High levels of hunger will continue for another 136 years in many developing countries, according to a new report assessing global hunger.
The report, the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI), paints a grim picture, predicting that global hunger levels will remain high for another century. If more progress is not made to end hunger, it will continue to reverse many development gains. The report blames the combined crises of conflict, climate change, high food prices and mounting debt, all of which are denying billions of people the right to adequate food.
Hunger Here To Stay
Published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, on October 10, 2024, the GHI reveals that at least 64 countries are unlikely to reach low hunger levels until 2160 if the current pace of change continues.
Hunger is at serious or alarming levels in 42 countries, with conflicts exacerbating food crises in places like Gaza and Sudan, where famine is already present in North Darfur, the report found.
Now in its 19th year, the GHI ranks countries based on recorded levels of undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. Of the 136 countries examined, 36 face serious hunger levels, while six at the bottom of the index—Somalia, Yemen, Chad, Madagascar, Burundi, and South Sudan—have alarming hunger levels. In 2023 alone, 281.6 million people in 59 countries and territories faced crisis-level or acute food insecurity, including Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and Burkina Faso.
The report warns that the chances of meeting the UN’s goal of zero hunger by 2030 are grim.
Concern Worldwide’s Chief Executive, David Regan, described the situation as disappointing that the 2030 goal was now out of reach.
“Our response should be to redouble our efforts to regain momentum,” Regan told IPS. “We need global action to tackle hunger.”
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions most affected by hunger. According to the GHI, about 22 countries in Africa are facing serious hunger levels. Of the top ten countries cited for having serious to alarming hunger levels, five are in Africa.
David Regan, Chief Executive, Concern Worldwide. Credit: Concern worldwide
Conflict, Climate Change and High Debt Fuel Hunger
Large-scale armed conflicts, climate change, high food prices, market disruptions, economic downturns, and debt crises in many low- and middle-income countries have combined to complicate efforts to reduce hunger, the report found.
“Conflict can only be resolved where the external stakeholders that are typically fueling the conflict, step away from using conflict to acquire the resources or to increase the instability of the most fragile states,” Regan told IPS. “Climate change will not stop until those responsible for the largest emissions reduce them. It is not possible to say that the human right to food is being respected globally when powerful nations are clearly not playing their role in addressing its causes.”
Regan criticized wealthy nations for not playing their part in addressing global hunger, stating that while they have not turned their backs on the issue, political interest in solving hunger has waned in recent years.
The report further notes that more than 115 million people globally are internally displaced—some have been forced to migrate as a result of persecution, conflict violence and many more displaced by weather-related disasters.
The wars in Gaza and Sudan have led to exceptional food crises, the report stated, flagging rising inequality between and within countries. Although extreme poverty in middle-income countries has decreased, income inequality remains persistently high, and poverty in the poorest countries is worse than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gender Equality, Key to Food Security
The report also draws attention to the link between gender inequality, food insecurity, and climate change, noting that these factors combined have put communities and countries under extreme stress.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu delivers his speech during the opening session of 29th Session of the Committee on Agriculture. Credit: FAO/Cristiano Minichiello
“Governments must invest in and promote gender equality and climate change and recognize and deliver on the right to food so that all people are assured the right to food,” Regan said.
Ahead of World Food Day, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has echoed the call for swift action to eliminate hunger and ensure everyone has access to safe, nutritious food.
The World Food Day is being marked under the theme Right to food for a better life and a better future, which underscores the urgency to provide varied and healthy food to all.
FAO Director General Qu Dongyu noted that 730 million people are facing hunger due to the global challenges caused by man-made and natural disasters. Besides, more than 2.8 billion people in the world cannot afford a healthy diet.
“There is no time to lose, we must take immediate action, we must act together,” Dongyu urged, reiterating that the right to food is a basic human right.
SYDNEY, Oct 14 2024 (IPS) – The Pacific Islands region is both the frontline of the wrath that climate change is lashing on the environment and human life and the drive for innovation and solutions to stem the destruction and strengthen island environments for the future. The survival of life, even nations, in the Pacific depends on it.
“The world has much to learn from you… Plastic pollution is choking sea life. Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification and rising seas. But Pacific Islands are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet and our ocean,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said during his visit to Tonga in August.
And the Pacific Community’sPROTÉGÉ Project (the name means ‘protect’ in French) is doing just that. Launched six years ago with funding by the European Development Fund (EDF), it is striving to advance climate resilient development through protecting and better managing biodiversity and natural renewable resources, such as freshwater, in the three French overseas territories of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, as well as the British overseas territory of Pitcairn, in the Pacific. To achieve this, it has brought together provincial and local-level governments, consulting firms, non-government organizations, and local communities and is led and coordinated by science and development experts from the regional development organization, Pacific Community (SPC), that works for 22 Pacific island governments and territories.
It honors the interconnected nature of island ecosystems through the four focus areas of the project: agriculture and forestry, coastal fisheries and aquaculture, invasive species and water. For instance, “in an integrated watershed management approach, what happens in the mountains ends up in the rivers and eventually in the sea,” Peggy Roudaut, SPC’s PROTÉGÉ Project Manager in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS.
A community worker replants and maintains the forest. Reforestation develops long-term climate-resilient environments. Credit: SPC
Healthy forests are the lungs of flourishing natural ecosystems and biodiversity, with forest maintenance at the heart of the PROTÉGÉ Project. Credit: SPC
“The water theme is central,” she continued. “By working on the sustainability of water resources and supporting the water policies of the territories, while also promoting actions to make aquaculture and agriculture more sustainable, we contribute to making the overseas countries and territories more resilient to the effects of climate change.”
While the Pacific Islands are surrounded by a vast 161.76 million square kilometers of ocean, their sources of freshwater are fragile. Most islanders who live in rural areas have to choose from limited groundwater lenses, streams or rainwater harvesting. Ninety-two percent of Pacific islanders living in urban centers have access to clean drinking water, declining to 44 percent in rural communities, reports the Pacific Community (SPC).
Improving water security is a priority in the national development goals of Pacific Island countries, but real progress is being undermined by population growth, which is rapidly increasing demand, and the worsening impacts of climate change. Rising air and sea temperatures, more heatwaves and unreliable rainfall with rising sea levels that are driving coastal erosion are all taking their toll on the region, reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In the western Pacific, temperatures are predicted to increase by 2-4.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, while most Pacific Island states will witness a sea level rise 10-30 percent higher than the global mean, which is projected to be 38 centimeters by the end of the century, according to the United Nations.
And then there’s pollution. “For many rural and remote and even urban communities, water sources that were once safe to drink or use for farming have become unsafe due to pollutants, including improper waste disposal and agricultural runoff,” Professor Dan Orcherton, Professor in Sciences at the University of Fiji, told IPS, emphasizing “that freshwater security in the Pacific Islands is quite precarious, reflecting a complex interplay of natural and human induced factors.”
The Pacific Community (SPC) is working to protect, manage and support countries to monitor freshwater reserves across the entire Pacific region. PROTÉGÉ, specifically focused on Pacific territories, has been supporting this work by regenerating forests and vegetation in their vicinity and developing long-term climate-resilient management plans.
The quality of drinking water is also being improved through closely studying detrimental factors, such as construction and development, and decontaminating rivers and wells that are polluted by waste and landfills.
Healthy forests are the lungs of flourishing natural ecosystems and biodiversity that, in turn, regulate the local climate, protect natural watersheds and prevent soil erosion. Forests cover 43.7 percent of the five archipelagos in French Polynesia, which is regularly battered by cyclones, droughts and sea level rise. Meanwhile, in Wallis and Futuna, a small group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific with scarce freshwater, deforestation due to forest clearing, and soil erosion are serious problems.
Closer to the east coast of Australia, forest covers 45.9 percent of the islands of New Caledonia. Here, water resources are being affected by nickel mining, forest fires and soil erosion. Scientists forecast that, against predicted climate change impacts, 87-96 percent of native tree species in New Caledonia could decline by 2070.
The broader community, including children, are also involved in the reforestation projects. Credit: SPC
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a partner in a project being rolled out in the district of Dumbea, north of the capital, Noumea. Credit: SPC
Roudaut spoke of three projects in New Caledonia that, together, boosted the reforestation of 27 hectares, the replanting of vegetation around drinking water supply catchments and put in place 3,460 meters of fencing around water sources that will prevent damage, whether by fires or wildlife, such as deer and wild boars. Local communities were vital to their success, with 190 islanders, many of whom were women and youths, involved in making the projects a reality on the ground.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a partner in one being rolled out in the district of Dumbea, north of the capital, Noumea. The project focuses on the Montagne des Sources upstream of the Dumbea dam, which provides water to 110,000 people, or 40 percent of New Caledonia’s population.
Solène Verda, Head of WWF’s Forestry Program in the territory, told IPS that the incidence of forest fires, as well as floods and droughts, which also affect water security, will only intensify with climate change. “Every year in New Caledonia, fires destroy around 20,000 hectares of vegetation, which is a disaster regarding the islands’ surface; in ten years, 10 percent of the main island has already burned,” she said. “The predictions are not cheery for New Caledonian forests and, thus, the freshwater resources.”
Improving water security is a priority in the national development goals of Pacific Island countries. Credit: SPC
The PROTÉGÉ initiative is tackling one of the greatest inhibitors to combating climate damage, which is limited technical and management capacity. Due to “the remoteness of these islands and small populations… combined with the emigration of skilled professionals out of the region, there is minimal capacity within regional countries to respond to the day-to-day vulnerability threats, let alone the frequent natural disasters experienced,” reports the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
“Thanks to SPC’s PROTÉGÉ, we had the opportunity to test different forest restoration techniques on our degraded watersheds… and it has given us a clearer idea of the methods best suited to our context,” Verda said.
It is a key issue understood by the EU, which has supported the initiative with 36 million euros, in addition to 128,000 euros contributed by the three French territories.
PROTÉGÉ is part of our “commitment to environmental sustainability, climate resilience and sustainable economic autonomy for these small, often vulnerable island territories in line with the Green Deal,” Georges Dehoux, Deputy Head of the Office of the European Union (EU) in the Pacific in Noumea, told IPS. The Green Deal is the EU’s ambition to achieve net zero emissions and non-resource equitable economic growth to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
All Pacific Island countries and territories “are facing the same environmental and economic challenges, and a combined and coordinated response at the regional level will ensure better resilience to these challenges,” Dehoux added.
Those working with the project have a sense of urgency about what they are aiming to achieve. For, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advises, “We can still reverse some of the damage we have inflicted on our precious planet. But time is running out. If we don’t take decisive action in the next 10-20 years, the damage will have passed irreversible tipping points.”
Fishworkers are often invisible in discussions about climate change, yet they are at the heart of food security, feeding millions while struggling to feed their own families. Their fight for survival is not just about tradition or livelihood—it’s about justice. Shouldn’t their futures be at the forefront of climate justice debates?
The iconic Chinese fishing nets along the Kerala coast offer a picturesque scene that draws tourists from around the world. However, the fishworkers that have used them for centuries livelihoods are in peril. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
KOCHI, India, Oct 10 2024 (IPS) – Every morning before dawn, fishworkers along the shores of Kochi, Kerala, head out to sea, casting their nets in the shadow of the iconic Cheenavala—the Chinese fishing nets that have become a symbol of their community. I witnessed this time-honored tradition, once a reliable means of survival, now a daily gamble, a fight against unpredictable seas and shrinking fish populations.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed how vulnerable they are; despite being classified as essential workers, they were left without the protections they needed.
And now, as climate change tightens its grip, these fishworkers find themselves on the front lines of a new crisis. Rising sea temperatures, erratic weather, and depleting fish stocks have pushed them further into despair, forcing them to navigate a future as uncertain as the waters they depend on.
Martin, a fishworker from Kochi, Kerala, who smiled and invited me on his boat, has been fishing for over 25 years, reflecting on the mounting hardships. After a while explaining to me about the huge boat and the process of fishing, he said, “In these difficult times, when the government should be supporting us after generations of families have relied on fishing, we are left with nothing and are desperate for help. We purchase our tools and equipment for fishing, yet there’s no assistance from the government for education or healthcare.”
Fishworkers face uncertain future due to climate change and a lack of support from government. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
Martin continued, “Five to six people work on a boat, and money has to be given to the owner as well. We have started to rely on tourism now, where we invite tourists, especially foreigners, onto our boats (private property) to explain our craft and fishing process, for which we sometimes get compensated. Some are generous, and some are not! This used to be the only way of earning in the rough season (Monsoon Fishing Ban), but now, after the climate change, this has become the only source of income for us.”
Kochi, once known as Cochin, was a major global trading hub. It drew merchants from Arabia and China in the 1400s, and later the Portuguese established Cochin as their protectorate, making it the first capital of Portuguese India in 1530.
Today, the city’s rich architectural heritage, along with the iconic Cheenavala (Chinese fishing nets), are major tourist attractions. Fishermen here use these Chinese fishing nets as a traditional method of fishing.
Believed to have been introduced by the Chinese explorer Zheng He from the court of Kublai Khan, these iconic nets became a part of Kochi’s landscape between 1350 and 1450 AD. The technique, which is quite impressive to witness, involves large, shore-based nets that are suspended in the air by bamboo/teakwood supports and lowered into the water to catch fish without the need to venture out to sea. The entire structure is counterbalanced by heavy stones, making it an eco-friendly practice that preserves marine life and vegetation, relying solely on natural materials without harmful gadgets.
Once a vital tool for sustaining the livelihoods of Kochi’s fishworkers, the traditional Cheenavala fishing nets have now become a symbol of a deepening crisis. Climate change, particularly the warming of the Arabian Sea, has drastically reduced fish populations.
Ironically, the government profits from promoting this iconic symbol even as the seafood industry faces closures, with four export-oriented fish processing units shutting down in Kerela in recent months due to the shortage of fish. This stark contrast highlights the growing disconnect between tradition and survival in the face of climate change.
The walls of Kerala are adorned with graffiti advocating for fishworkers and marine biodiversity. In Kochi, a mural reads, “Save the largest fish on Earth,” calling attention to the need for conservation. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
Despite the Chinese fishing nets being a major tourist attraction, the government has shown little or no interest in preserving them. The process started in 2014 when a Chinese delegation, led by Hao Jia, a senior official of the Chinese embassy in India, met with Kochi’s then-mayor, Tony Chammany, to help renovate the nets and proposed constructing a pavement along Fort Kochi beach.
KJ Sohan, former mayor of Kochi and president of the Chinese Fishing Net Owners’ Association, expressed his support for the Chinese initiative to preserve the traditional fishing nets. He emphasized that such large nets, rooted in ancient techniques, are unique to this region. However, he also highlighted the significant governmental neglect of these nets. Insurance companies refuse to cover them, and they need to be replaced twice a year, which incurs substantial costs.
The Tourism Department later instructed the Kerala Industrial and Technology Consultancy Organisation (KITCO) to refurbish 11 of these nets and allotted 2.4 crore rupees (24 million), along with teakwood and Malabar for the repairs.
The authorities had initially refused to release funds directly, requiring the owners to start the refurbishment first, with promises of staggered payments. It has recently come to light that the boat owners, many of whom took out high-interest loans to begin the renovation, are now in financial distress as they have yet to receive the promised government funds, despite completing the work over a year ago.
A Chinese fishing net on the coast of Kochi, Kerala (India). Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
Many took out loans and installed new coconut timber stumps, but even after nearly finishing the work, they are still waiting for the funds. This has left the fishworkers in debt while authorities cite GST-related issues for the delay. The owners argue they are exempt from the tax.
Fishworkers, both men and women, are often invisible in discussions about climate change, yet they are at the heart of food security, feeding millions while struggling to feed their own families. Their fight for survival is not just about tradition or livelihood—it’s about justice. If the government continues to turn a blind eye, Kerala’s fishworkers may have no choice but to seek support elsewhere, from international bodies, non-governmental organizations, or global climate finance mechanisms. Their struggles must be recognized, and their voices amplified in the push for climate justice.
Kerala’s fishworkers are not just battling the seas—they are fighting for their future. Without immediate action and meaningful support, we risk losing not only their livelihoods but an entire way of life. If the government cannot rise to the occasion, the world must step in to ensure that these communities do not slip into obscurity.
Farmers, traders and consumers at the Mbare Musika Territorial Market in Harare, Zimbabwe. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS
HARARE, Oct 4 2024 (IPS) – African policymakers, local leaders and the private sector have been asked to create an enabling environment that will help African traders and farmer folks build reliable systems for food security and resilience through territorial markets.
During a week-long 2024 Africa Agroecological Entrepreneurship and Seed Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe, experts observed that persistent crises have shown the importance of resilient close-to-home ‘territorial’ markets that feed billions of people every day—from public markets and street vendors to cooperatives, from urban agriculture to online direct sales, and from food hubs to community kitchens.
“For instance, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global food prices spiked by 15 percent, forcing policymakers around the world to question how to reduce dependency on volatile global markets and strengthen food self-sufficiency,” said Dr. Million Belay, the General Coordinator at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).
“Further, questions have been raised about how people are actually fed and by whom, prompting us to ask: in this century of crisis, what kinds of food supply chains and markets can build resilience and help fulfill the right to food—nourishing people around the world more sustainably and equitably?” asked Belay.
To answer the question, experts are calling for policies and a sound working environment that will empower territorial markets that promote dietary diversity and affordable nutritious foods for all, allow producers and food workers to retain control over their livelihoods, and produce food that is adaptable to climate change shocks and emerging crises.
These markets have been broadly defined as markets that are centered on small-scale agroecological food producers and business owners that produce and sell a variety of commodities, and often meet the preferences of the majority of farmers, traders and consumers.
Studies have shown that these markets play a crucial role in making food accessible and affordable, especially for low-income populations in the Global South, allowing for the purchase of small and flexible quantities of food, price bargaining, informal credit arrangements, and being located in or near low-income neighborhoods.
A new study launched on the sidelines of the Harare event that culminated into the fifth Biennial Africa Food Systems Conference, however, shows that profit-oriented corporate value chains are highly concentrated in Africa’s market places.
The report, titled ‘Food from Somewhere,’ by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES Food), finds that just seven grain traders control at least 50 percent of the global grain trade, six major corporations control 78 percent of the agrochemical market, the top eight carriers of freight account for more than 80 percent of the market for ocean freight capacity and globally, 1 percent of the world’s largest farms control 70 percent of the world’s farmland.
This, according to experts, amounts to a corporate capture of Africa’s food systems.
The report is therefore advocating for a paradigm shift, urging governments to reinvest in local and regional supply infrastructure, relocalize public purchasing and develop food security strategies for a more resilient and equitable approach to food security.
“The problem for smallholders is not of being connected to markets (most are already involved in markets) but rather the conditions of their access and the rules and logics by which markets operate—who determines prices and on what criteria, who controls the costs of production, who holds market power, among other issues,” said Mamadou Goïta, a member of IPES and the lead author.
A spot check at the Mbare Musika territorial market in Harare found a variety of foodstuffs sourced from all eight regions of Zimbabwe, among others from neighboring countries, such as apples and other fruits from South Africa, fish and ginger from Mozambique, groundnuts from Malawi, sorghum from Botswana, as well as grapes from Egypt and tamarind from Tanzania, among others.
“This is the central hub for smallholder farmers and traders, supporting over seven million people from all over Zimbabwe and other parts of the continent,” said Charles Dhewa, Chief Executive Officer, Knowledge Transfer Africa (KTA), whose flagship known as eMkambo (eMarket) is to create a physical and web-based market for agriculture and rural development, integrating the use of mobile phones and the internet to create, adapt and share knowledge.
Mbare Musika Market, which is in the outskirts of Harare, is located next to the main bus-park, through which food is brought in using informal means such as passenger buses and vans from different parts of the country, in small and big quantities, and of different varieties and qualities.
“The evidence is clear—localized food systems are vital for feeding an increasingly hungry planet and preventing food insecurity and famine,” said Shalmali Guttal, the Executive Director of Focus on the Global South. “They provide nutritious, affordable food and are far more adaptable to global shocks and disruptions than industrial supply chains,” she added.
Jennifer Clapp, professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, Canada, pointed out that during this time of rising hunger and ecological fragility, global industrial food chains will be catastrophically liable to break down under the strain of frequent crises.
“To have a chance of reaching the world’s zero hunger goal by 2030, we need to re-imagine our food systems, and we need to bolster the food markets that serve the poor,” she said.
When the weather is bad, the residents of the Litoral neighborhood in Manzanillo, Cuba, are forced to evacuate their houses. When it’s calm, the sea penetrates the foundations of houses, leaving them vulnerable. Now the community is getting together to restore the mangroves and improve the environment to return their homes to safety.
A fisherman sits next to several boats at the GeoCuba Local Interest Fishing Port in the bay of Manzanillo, in the eastern Cuban province of Granma. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
MANZANILLO, Cuba, Oct 2 2024 (IPS) – Every time a hurricane clouds the skies over the city of Manzanillo, in the eastern Cuban province of Granma, the sea pounds the Litoral neighbourhood, forcing many of the 200 families who live there to evacuate inland because of flooding.
When the weather is calm, the sea penetrates subtly and constantly, salinizing the water table and eroding the coast, affecting the foundations of houses and artesian wells.
“The water almost always enters this area. The houses were built too close to the sea and the mangroves are deforested,” community leader Martha Labrada, 65, told IPS.
Labrada has presided over the people’s council (local administration organisation) for 13 years, which covers the Litoral neighbourhood and a two-kilometer stretch of coastline that is home to about 5,000 people.
A mangrove forest in Manzanillo Bay, eastern Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
Protective mangroves
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), mangroves extract up to five times more carbon than land forests, raise the ground level and thus slow down the rise in sea level.
This coastal ecosystem, typical of tropical and subtropical areas, usually consists of a swamp forest, a strip of black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) and a strip of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), the barrier closest to the sea, whose trunks absorb the impact of waves and protect against extreme weather conditions.
Mangroves act as nurseries for fish fry and as havens for honey bees, among a huge variety of fauna and flora.
They also serve as a protective area for fresh water. If degraded, salt from marine waters would more easily enter underground water basins, contaminating the drinkability of this liquid and disabling wells located miles inland.
Blanca Estrada, administrative coordinator of the Mi Costa project on behalf of the provincial government of Granma in eastern Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
Protection from the sea
The Litoral neighbourhood is one of the most vulnerable in the municipality to climate change because it borders the mangroves, but it is not the only one in this situation.
In Manzanillo there are six people’s councils that are in direct contact with the coast. Some 60,000 inhabitants suffer the consequences, almost half of the total population of the municipality located 753 kilometres east of Havana.
The need to find solutions to the problem of rising sea levels was therefore born in the rural neighborhoods and villages of Manzanillo.
To counteract this prospect, small community projects emerged in 2018, also promoted by a national plan to tackle climate change known as Tarea Vida, which had been launched by the central government a year earlier.
As a result, 23 initiatives were set up in the municipality, which were later grouped in a single nationwide project called Mi Costa, the project’s coordinator in Manzanillo, Margot Hernández, told IPS.
Mi Costa seeks to create conditions of resilience to climate change through adaptation solutions based on strengthening the benefits provided by coastal ecosystems. In essence, its main task is to reforest and rehabilitate mangroves.
“In addition, we have to change living habits. That’s what we are working on,” Hernández added.
Ditch built in the middle of a mangrove swamp to contribute to its drainage and the recirculation of saline and fresh water in the municipality of Manzanillo, eastern Cuba. Credit: Courtesy of Mi Costa in Manzanillo
Behind deforestation
Manzanillo, because of its low isometry and its 25 kilometres of coastline, is in a serious state of environmental vulnerability.
The deforested areas of mangroves amount to 708.7 hectares, being the most affected concentrated at the river mouths.
With a weakened natural containment barrier, the saline waters penetrate the riverbeds and, for example, in the Yara River, in the north of the municipality, they do so up to seven kilometres inland, according to Leandro Concepción, the project coordinator for the Granma Provincial Delegation of Hydraulic Resources.
In any case, the salinity penetrates through underground water basins and, according to Hernández, the coordinator in Manzanillo, “there are people’s artesian wells, which were once used for consumption but are now salinized.”
Mangrove deforestation has several causes: the lack or blockage of channels hinders the ebb and flow of the tide and alters the exchange of freshwater with marine waters.
It is also affected by the invasion of invasive exotic species such as the arboreal Ipil Ipil or guaje (Leucaena leucocephala), anthropogenic human intervention through the construction of infrastructure, agricultural and livestock practices near the coast, and even the felling of mangroves to make charcoal.
A group of people receive a class given by the Mi Costa project at the Manzanillo Training Center. Credit: Courtesy of Mi Costa in Manzanillo
According to Labrada, the community leader in Litoral, several houses have been built almost adjacent to the mangrove, without the corresponding construction permits. Moreover, state-owned industrial infrastructures, such as a shoe factory and an inactive sawmill, cause the same damage.
Coastal and river pollution from industrial waste dumping also depresses coastal ecosystems.
For decades, the region’s sugar mills and rice industry dumped their waste into the rivers, Blanca Estrada, administrative coordinator of Mi Costa on behalf of the Granma provincial government, told IPS.
This situation is one of the examples of climate injustice in the area: upstream, the industrial sector caused environmental havoc that affected mangrove health and, at the end of the chain, the quality of life of coastal residents, making them more vulnerable to climatic events.
In 2023, decisive measures were taken to solve the problem and the few active factories no longer discharge their waste into the sea or use filters. In the second half of 2024, the results have already begun to show: “The migratory birds have returned, something you didn’t see months ago,” said Estrada.
However, the effects of climate change still persist in Manzanillo.
“The environmental situation today is quite complex for the keys,” Víctor Remón, director of Manzanillo’s Department of Territorial Development, which belongs to the local government, told IPS.
The municipality’s territory contains an extensive cay of 2.44 square kilometres, but Cayo Perla has already been submerged under the waters of the Gulf of Guacanayabo.
“It disappeared six or seven years ago. It was a beautiful key, with beautiful white sands. There was a tourist facility from where you could see the city of Manzanillo,” Remón said.
For his part, Roberto David Rosales, fisherman and Mi Costa contributor, remembers a path he used to walk along the shore until last year; now it has been ‘swallowed’ by the sea.
“Almost two meters were lost in this area in one year. These are things that force us to be protectors of the mangroves. The Mi Costa project came at the right time,” he told IPS.
Margot Hernández (left), coordinator of the Mi Costa project in Manzanillo, opens the training centre in the city of Manzanillo. Credit: Courtesy of Mi Costa in Manzanillo
Steps towards a solution
Mi Costa was made official in December 2021, but heavy work began in 2023, due to a pause caused by the COVID pandemic.
In Manzanillo, the project brought together about 100 collaborators, who were divided into small community groups of about 10 people, who support the monitoring and cleaning of mangroves and ditches and awareness-raising among the population.
Labrada also has its own people’s council group, composed of six women and four men.
In addition, training centres have been set up in the municipality on climate change adaptability, environmental safeguards, gender and other issues. To date, 10,500 people have been trained.
“We are working with the coast dwellers, because the issue is that people don’t leave the coasts, but that they stay and learn to live there, taking care of them,” said Estrada, the government coordinator.
Sunset on the boardwalk in the eastern Cuban city of Manzanillo. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
They have also built 1,300 meters of ditches, using picks and shovels, to achieve a form of water rotation, but this figure has yet to be multiplied.
The immediate challenge is to finish building the nursery where the mangrove seedlings will sprout and then be planted in the deforested areas.
“Once we have the nursery, there will be no difficulty at all in Granma to begin the process of rehabilitating the mangroves,” Norvelis Reyes, Mi Costa’s main coordinator in the province, told IPS.
Mi Costa’s area of action in Granma covers, in addition to the coast of Manzanillo, the northern municipalities of Yara and Río Cauto.
Nationwide, 24 communities in the south of Cuba are involved in resilience actions (1,300 kilometres of coastline), of which 14 are at risk of disappearing due to coastal flooding by 2050, including Manzanillo.
The southern coast of this Caribbean island country was chosen because it is more vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise, given its lower geographical isometry than in the north.
In addition, the south also has a higher concentration of mangroves, making it more necessary and effective to build coastal resilience based on adaptation and focused on the rehabilitation and reforestation of these ecosystems.
While implemented by the communities themselves and with the participation of the villagers, the project is supervised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the country office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Green Climate Fund provided funding of USD 23.9 million, while Cuban state institutions contributed USD 20.3 million.
The ultimate goal will be to restore some 114 square kilometres of mangroves, 31 square kilometres of swamp forest and nine square kilometres of grassy swamps in eight years. After that, a period of 22 years will be dedicated to the operation and maintenance of the implemented actions.
It is estimated that more than 1.3 million people will benefit on this Caribbean island, the largest in the region and home to 11 million people.
Buoyed by the collaboration and agenda established in their SIDS4 conference in May, small island developing states are preparing for COP29 with a focus on climate finance and collaboration. IPS spoke with an official from Saint Lucia about that nation’s climate action, preparation for COP29 and the importance of a united SIDS’ voice in negotiations.
Section of Castries, Saint Lucia. Through ambitious NDCs, SIDS like Saint Lucia are hoping to shore up resilience and protect their economies and infrastructure. Access to adequate climate financing remains crucial to these efforts. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS
SAINT LUCIA, Oct 1 2024 (IPS) – Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are experiencing the most severe impacts of climate change. When leaders of those islands met in Antigua and Barbuda in May, they let the world know that achieving climate justice hinges on comprehensive climate finance.
As they prepare for the 2024 United Nations climate change conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, Saint Lucia is prioritizing this issue, strengthening alliances with other SIDS, and seeking critical funding for adaptation and mitigation projects. With the recent enactment of its Climate Change Act of 2024, the island nation recognizes that securing climate finance is vital for safeguarding its future.
“This year’s COP has been dubbed the ‘Finance COP’,” Maya Sifflet, a Sustainable Development and Environment Officer for Saint Lucia told IPS. “The focus is to get the finance we need to mobilize and implement the ambitious climate action we’ve committed to.”
Saint Lucia, like many other SIDS, faces significant challenges in adapting to the impacts of climate change. Rising sea levels, more intense storms and shifting weather patterns are already threatening its economy and infrastructure. Sifflet explained that Saint Lucia has developed a comprehensive National Adaptation Plan (NAP), which integrates climate action into national development strategies. However, without adequate funding, even the most well-crafted plans risk falling short.
“Every year, countries submit their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), outlining the climate action they’re taking. We are encouraged to make them as ambitious as possible, stating what climate action we are taking. Our NDCs now capture not only our mitigation efforts, but our adaptation efforts as well,” Sifflet said.
Finance is crucial to those plans.
“We need to ensure our sectors are more resilient—agriculture, tourism, fisheries. Each sector was encouraged to assess its risk, assess vulnerabilities and explore what actions can be taken to build resilience. We have therefore developed several sectoral adaptation strategies and action plans.”
Saint Lucia has also developed a set of bankable project concepts, which aim to make the nation “finance-ready” when global funds become available. These initiatives are part of a broader effort to position the country to receive climate funding, whether through bilateral agreements or international mechanisms.
Sifflet emphasized that collective action through umbrella groups like the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is crucial to Saint Lucia’s success at COP29. “We negotiate in blocs. Our strength is in numbers,” she said. “Through AOSIS, we exchange knowledge, share experiences, and amplify each other’s voices in the negotiations. It’s a big arena, it’s very contentious and you need that collective presence to have power.”
One of the key areas Saint Lucia and AOSIS members will focus on during COP29 is the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund, which was a breakthrough agreement during COP27. The fund is designed to provide financial assistance to vulnerable countries for losses and damages resulting from climate change impacts that cannot be mitigated or adapted to.
“Operationalizing the Loss and Damage Fund would be a major success at COP29,” Sifflet noted. “It’s something SIDS have lobbied for over many years. This fund signifies that the global community is ready to put money where their mouth is.”
Saint Lucia, in anticipation of the fund’s formalization, has already conducted a Loss and Damage Needs-Based Assessment to ensure it is prepared to access financing once it becomes available.
“As vulnerable countries, we bear the brunt of climate change, often being forced to hit the reset button after every extreme weather event,” Sifflet added. “And it’s not just about economic losses—our cultural assets, things that can’t be quantified, are at risk. There is so much at stake for us as small islands,” she told IPS.
Sifflet concluded that while Saint Lucia’s preparation for COP29 has been extensive, the real measure of success will be securing the finance and global commitments needed to ensure the survival and prosperity of small islands in the face of climate change.
This week, the COP29 Presidency unveiled a group of programmes to propel global climate action. In a letter to all parties, President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev said it include the Baku Initiative on Climate Finance, Investment and Trade, noting that “climate finance, as a critical enabler of climate action, is a centrepiece of the COP29 Presidency’s vision.”
This year’s COP is expected to be a competitive negotiations stage for global climate change funding. Small island developing states will be looking to the large economies and major emitters of greenhouse gases to give the financial support needed for adaptation and mitigation measures to cope with a crisis that they did little to create. The stakes for Saint Lucia, and other SIDS, are high.
