BY KIMONE THOMPSON Associate editor – features thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com
DISCOVERY BAY, St Ann — For the past two-and-a-half years, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has spent upwards of US$660,000 growing coral in two locations in Jamaica and one site in Belize.
If you’re like most people, you’re wondering why a development bank, with the broad objectives of helping its members reduce poverty and grow their economies, is concerned with coral.
“I don’t think it odd at all that the bank is doing this. I think the bank should be doing more things like this. In fact, if you look at the direction in which the bank is going now, you’ll see that the bank will be doing more and more things like this,” says IDB Environmental Principal Specialist, Climate Change and Sustainability Development Sector Graham Watkins.
‘This’ is in reference to the Coral Reef Restoration Program, in which scientists from the The University of the West Indies’ Centre for Marine Sciences and its Discovery Bay Marine Lab have been studying various coral species to determine their resilience to climatic variation and change, including sea level rise and increased ocean/sea temperatures. They propagate the corals in nurseries and will transplant them once they are big enough in hopes of replenishing the island’s declining coral stock over time. Work under the programme started in June 2014 and will end in November. Similar work was carried out in Placencia, Belize, through collaboration with Fragments of Hope.
Speaking yesterday at a workshop to discuss the results and outcomes of the programme at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab, Watkins explained that the programme was a natural fit for the IDB as it reflects a shift in the organisation’s policy.
“The bank recently updated its 2010-2020 strategy. It updated it mid-term, which is interesting because one of the major changes that they’ve made…they didn’t change the objectives – poverty reduction and economic growth still sit as the main objectives of the bank – but what they’ve done is they’ve made climate change and environmental sustainability institutions as completely cross-cutting. They made a clear statement that the IDB, yes, will chase those original historical goals, but it will incorporate those (climate change and environment) across the bank,” the environment specialist said.
“It is quite a fundamental change in the direction of bank,” he added.
Watkins explained that in his six years at the IDB, he has seen climate change grow from an initiative, which he defined as little more than a one-off project to throw money at, to a division, and as of this year, a full-fledged department.
Previous to that development, he said, the bank had drafted a biodiversity plan because it believes that its core objectives cannot be divorced from sustainable use of natural resources.
“If you look at biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean, you’ll see that [it’s] one of the major sources of dependence for very poor people, whether you’re talking about coral reefs or whether you’re talking about rainforests. So, if you really want to meet those goals of poverty reduction, you’re going to have to deal with those issues.
“If you look at the Caribbean and you’re going to talk about economic growth, you’re going to have to look at tourism and tourism depends on those resources, so the links are quite obvious when you think about it,” the IDB representative continued.
The directional shift towards environmental concerns, he said, had much to do with the Paris Agreement signed last December, and the Sustainable Development Goals to which UN member countries agreed upon earlier in 2015.
Watkins argued that while it may be “easier said than done” convincing politicians and other decision makers to drive the change, it is the way of the future. Strengthening the point, he pointed to an op-ed in the Guardian, written by IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and professor of economics and government at the London School of Economics Nicolas Stern, which, in a nod to the emerging green infrastructure movement, advocated for a merger of the climate change and infrastructure development agendas.
“The idea is to bring those two things together because they are critical for economic growth and poverty reduction,” said Watkins.
The two-day workshop is called ‘Coral Lifeline’ and will include site visits to the underwater coral nurseries today