Government policies, procurement practices, and permitting requirements play a central role in defining how and what projects are completed in the Caribbean. Options to increase NBS awareness in the Caribbean include engaging local communities, organizations, and entrepreneurs in the Caribbean that are actively pursuing NBS projects to learn about their experiences leverage information from regional organizations to aggregate and disseminate case study examples of NBS projects that have been implemented or are ongoing in the Caribbean promote learning exchanges by connecting local expertise in the Caribbean with broader Latin American expertise involved in NBS projects and review NBS experiences and lessons from small island nations in other regions of the world. The lack of awareness of potential NBS options and their benefits on the part of both policymakers and project developers is a major barrier in the Caribbean. Notwithstanding these challenges, some actions can be taken to address the barriers to the uptake and scale-up of NBS in the Caribbean, such as: These three challenges result in barriers at all stages of NBS project implementation, from creating supporting policy and fiscal environments to project definition and design, procurement and granting permits for construction and inspection, to ongoing monitoring and evaluation. This aggregated lack of experience, expertise, and capacities increases the perceived risk of NBS projects in Caribbean countries that have few NBS projects as examples. Many traditional infrastructure developers do not have experience working with NBS materials and approaches and may not have people with relevant skills and expertise and the overall capacity to implement these initiatives. NBS require different skills and input materials.This makes policy and decision-making, coordination and implementation of NBS initiatives more difficult and often slower than traditional hard engineering applications. NBS projects often involve multiple sectors and government agencies, such as those managing the environment, agriculture, disaster preparedness, water, infrastructure, housing, transportation, tourism, and economic development. This makes it harder to evaluate the economics of NBS project, expected returns, and performance. Data on NBS benefits and risks is harder to acquire and there are fewer case studies available. Policymakers and project developers have limited experience with NBS projects than with traditional gray (hard engineering) infrastructure. Although the benefits of applying NBS are clear, there are three main challenges to its implementation in the Caribbean: NBS are defined as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.” In the construction industry, this can include “natural features, nature-based features, and approaches that combine natural and gray elements,” such as urban green spaces (urban forests, bioswales, rain gardens, and green roofs) coastal protections, such as coral reefs, mangroves, and horizontal levees and landslide protections, such as watershed restoration and management, bioretention systems, soil-bioengineering techniques, and permeable pavement.Ī recent IDB publication analyzes the challenges, actions, and best practices to increase NBS in the Caribbean. Across multiple sectors and infrastructure types, NBS can contribute to reduction in disaster risks such as flooding, reduce resource usage through improved energy efficiency and water management, emissions reduction, and carbon sequestration. Investing in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is critical for the Caribbean owing to the region’s heightened vulnerability to climate impacts and its high dependence on natural resources and reliance on imported materials for the construction sector. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean are among the most highly vulnerable countries to climate change hazards which include sea level rise, hurricanes, flooding, droughts, changing rainfall patterns, increased temperatures, and coastal erosion.
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