ST. GEORGE’S GRENADA– Five hundred thousand Euros have been allocated to Grenada for the implementation of an OECS Integrated Landscape Management Project that would be geared at strengthening Grenada’s resilience and adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change, improving food security, and securing global environmental benefits.
During the week of October 17-21, 2022, a team from the OECS ILM Project Implementation Unit and the ‘Central Component’ of the EU-funded Landscapes For Our Future programme (LFF) conducted the first learning mission in Grenada, where they visited the two target sites – Grand Bras and Grand Bacolet Estates – and conducted a consultation and stakeholder mapping exercise.
The objectives of this mission were to introduce LFF to Grenada’s context and its challenges and better understand the national application of the OECS-ILM initiative, its theory of change, and the project’s planned actions and partnerships.
Grenada’s project, which is termed ‘Restoration of Abandoned or Underutilised Croplands through the Implementation of ILM, SLM, and Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices’, is aimed at rehabilitating cocoa and nutmeg fields at the Grand Bras and Grand Bacolet Estates, cultivating fruit trees, vegetable and root crops, improvement of farm access roads, and training, said Focal Point for the project, Joseph Noel.
Researcher for CFOR, Natalia Cisneros, said in observing the operations at the different sites, she was pleased to see how this project will assist the vulnerable.
“There are big strengths with the project because it is building on work that has already been done. We also see that in this project, special emphasis is given to stakeholders that are in vulnerable situations, in this case, women, youth, and people who don’t necessarily have access to livelihoods or funds,” Cisneros stated.
Scientist with the Centre for International Research, Peter Cronkleton, spoke of the potential of this project in contributing to Grenada’s food and nutrition security.
“It will be an interesting experience to provide lessons on strategies for restoring lands that are either underutilised, abandoned, or affected by hurricanes in the past. This project has a lot of potential to provide lessons that can be used by the government, by private industries, and by farmers to continue to use land productively when it has been affected by natural disasters,” he said.
Supervisor of the Grand Bras Estate, Evan Bhola, said this project would ensure that the farm meets its commitment of becoming a demonstration plot for farmers.
“We are rehabilitating the entire estate and want to see that we maximise production. We also want to have a model where farmers around the country can come and see what will happen if they put the time, effort, and proper skills into rehabilitating their different farms – not just for production but for livelihood purposes,” he said.
Aiden Forteau, Sustainable Landscape Management Specialist for the Climate Resilient Agriculture for Integrated Landscape Management Project, said the project might meet some soil and water conservation challenges.
“We noticed particularly in the Grand Bacolet area there is cultivation down a slope without proper contour drainage, and there is proliferation of bamboo on both sites(Grand Bras and Grand Bacolet). We’ll have to look at areas to make some smart intervention when it comes to the forested areas, particularly on the steep slopes; species selection would be crucial,” Forteau stated.
The OECS GCCA+ ILM Project – which is funded by the European Union (EU) and being implemented by the OECS in nine of its Member States – seeks to optimise the contribution of land to agriculture, food security, climate-change mitigation and adaptation, and the preservation of ecosystems and the essential services they provide. This will be achieved through national interventions in participating Member States and strategic technical partnerships with institutions like CIFOR-ICRAF, the research organisations selected by the EU to implement LFF.
Ministry of Agriculture and Land, Fisheries and Cooperatives…ensuring food and nutrition security.
