GEF Agency: FAO
Executing Agency: Ministry of Agriculture (Département de Développement Agricole)
LDCF Grant: $2,000,000
Co-financing: $5,000,000
In light of the earthquake on January 12th, 2010 and the subsequent aftershocks, Port-au-Prince and its surrounding villages have been left in ruins, displaced nearly two million people and injured or killed hundreds of thousands. Unfortunately, natural disasters occur often in Haiti, usually every two to three years. Haiti routinely faces cyclones, storms, or tropical depressions which result in floods, landslides, tidal waves, epidemics, loss of livestock, livelihoods and damaged or destroyed infrastructure and habitats.
The overall goal of this LDCF project is to reduce the impact of climate variability and change on vulnerable farmers and livelihood groups by mitigating the impact on natural resources critical to sustain agricultural production and contribute to food security. The challenge is to adapt agriculture to climate change while simultaneously reducing the risk of future disasters. Integrating disaster risk management and climate change adaption will ensure that structural factors of vulnerability and risk reduction and systematically addressed. The project primarily builds upon previous experiences from technical assistance provided by the FAO.
Overall, the project will be focused on 1) the identification, validation, and appropriate introduction of seeds, cropping patterns, cultivars and improvement to traditional adaptation practice to promote climate-resilience of livelihood systems, 2) agro-forestry (tree planting), 3) sustainable land and water management practices, including soil conservation and land tilling, and lastly 4) strengthening of local institutions and associations to encourage awareness and dissemination of risk management linked to regional and national level disaster and climate risk management.
