Climate Resilience
Summary
Although St. Kitts and Nevis produce minimal greenhouse gas emissions, like any other Small Island Developing State, they are most vulnerable to the projected impacts of climate change. Extreme weather events such as flooding and droughts, along with changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, continue to significantly affect their economy. Climate change poses a major threat to the island’s overall development, especially because its key economic sectors are highly dependent on natural resources. Critical sectors such as water, health, tourism, agriculture, and coastal infrastructure will continue to be affected if these impacts are not addressed.Therefore attention will be given to climate mitigation and adaptation; securing the
marine and terrestrial ecosystems, water management, land use, and management to achieve climate resilience.
Vision & Goals
The vision for climate change adaptation and mitigation in St. Kitts and Nevis is a resilient St. Kitts and Nevis that is capable of effectively adapting to the long-term impacts of climate change to ensure the well-being and prosperity of its population and the health of its natural resources.
Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategic Priorities
- Ensuring national readiness through the enactment of legislation
- Improving water resource efficiency
- Protecting, preserving and restoring forests and terrestrial ecosystems
- Enhancing agricultural practices
- Managing wastes more sustainably
- Conserving fisheries, coastal and marine ecosystems
- Safeguarding human health
- Pursuing intersectoral coordination
- Pursuing investment and economic planning
- Rolling out vulnerable groups and community based iniatives
- Maintaining infrastructure and physical development
- Reorienting tourism
Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
Vision
The vision for climate change adaptation and mitigation in St. Kitts and Nevis is a resilient St. Kitts and Nevis that is capable of effectively adapting to the long-term impacts of climate change to ensure the well-being and prosperity of its population and the health of its natural resources.
Goals
- Reduce the vulnerability of Kitts and Nevis to the adverse impacts of climate variability and climate change through cross-sectoral and multi-faceted measures that build adaptive capacity and resilience over the long term
- Mainstream climate change adaptation into the national development agenda, including the planning, budgeting and implementation of new and existing policies, programmes and projects
- Ensure mitigation co-benefits, where possible, through prioritising adaptation measures that minimise greenhouse gas emissions and enhance natural ecosystems functioning as carbon sinks
- Mobilise external climate finance to support effective adaptation planning and implementation
Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategic Priorities
- Ensuring national readiness through the enactment of legislation
- Improving water resource efficiency
- Protecting, preserving and restoring forests and terrestrial ecosystems
- Enhancing agricultural practices
- Managing wastes more sustainably
- Conserving fisheries, coastal and marine ecosystems
- Safeguarding human health
- Pursuing intersectoral coordination
- Pursuing investment and economic planning
- Rolling out vulnerable groups and community based iniatives
- Maintaining infrastructure and physical development
- Reorienting tourism
Preserving Biodiversity
Vision
The overall vision of the biological diversity strategy in St. Kitts and Nevis is to integrate biodiversity issues into climate change concerns as well as all other environmental and all other developmental issues.
Goals
- Make an increased percentage of Kittitians and Nevisians aware of the values of biodiversity, and understand the steps they can take to conserve and use biodiversity sustainably
- Complete an assessment of biodiversity resources of St. Kitts and Nevis
- Capitalize on valuable synergies between national and global initiatives
- Provide an increased role to the Ministry of Sustainable Development in granting incentives to activities based on biodiversity-related sustainability principles
- Provide an increased role to the Ministry of Sustainable Development in granting of incentives to activities based on biodiversity-related sustainability principles
- Manage fish and invertebrate stocks and aquatic plants and harvesting sustainably and working in the Marine Management Area
- Manage areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry sustainably, ensuring the conservation of biodiversity
- Bring pollution, including from excess nutrients, to levels that are not detrimental to ecosystem function and biodiversity and developing appropriate waste management plans
- Identify and prioritize invasive alien species and pathways and take measures to manage pathways to prevent their introduction
- Minimize the anthropogenic pressures on coral reefs and other vulnerable coastal ecosystems impacted by climate change
Marine Ecology Management
Vision
The vision for the marine management in St. Kitts and Nevis is to provide for a well- managed marine area contributing to food security, sustainable livelihoods and the overall social and economic advancement of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis while ensuring the conservation and diversity of the marine resources.
Goal
The goal of marine management is to enable the effective management, conservation, development and maintenance of marine biodiversity of the nearshore and the coastal marine areas consistent with national priorities and needs, while adhering to the necessary international requirements.
Water Management
Vision
The vision for the water sector of St. Kitts and Nevis is to prioritize access to safe, reliable, and resilient water supply services and to reduce operational risks associated with climate variability and change.
Goals
- Develop policy, legislation and build capacity in the water sector
- Ensure that raw water supplies are sustainable and resilient
- Ensure climate-resilient water supply infrastructure
- Ensure that water distribution and use is effective and efficient
- Maintain an energy efficient and low carbon water sector
- Build water services which are resilient to the effects of extreme weather hazards
- Pursue an integrated water resource management plan
- Undertaking water legislation and institutional reform in Kitts
- Implementing legislative and institutional reforms recommended in the strategic framework for water resource management in Nevis
- Ensuring water data collection and management
- Evaluating the catchment land cover and sources of pollution
- Ensuring that farmers use appropriate agricultural techniques
- Engaging communities in the protection and conservation of water resource
- Developing new water sources to mitigate short-term water shortage and drought risks
Water Management Strategic Priorities
- Undertaking water legislation and institutional reform in Kitts
- Implementing legislative and institutional reforms recommended in the strategic framework for water resource management in Nevis
- Ensuring water data collection and management
- Evaluating the catchment land cover and sources of pollution
- Ensuring that farmers use appropriate agricultural techniques
- Engaging communities in the protection and conservation of water resource
- Developing new water sources to mitigate short-term water shortage and drought risks
- Undertaking a water resources strategic master plan
- Pursuing feasibility and develop alternative water sources
- Increasing treated water storage volume
- Undertaking water audits and pursue revenue enhancement
- Prioritizing works to improve the resilience of water distribution infrastructure to disasters and extreme weather events
- Prioritizing works to improve the disaster resilience of wells and pumping stations
- Improving water storage at strategic institutions such as medical facilities
- Reviewing and updating emergency response plans
- Pursuing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach
Land Management
Vision
The vision of St. Kitts and Nevis is to create a land management system that will effectively manage the use of land resources to preserve the environment, increase access, promote social mobility, and enhance economic development.
Goals
- Optimize the use of the Federation land resources to achieve the social and economic development objectives of all its citizens in an environmentally sustainable, and disaster-resilient manner.
- Maximize the benefits of the State’s land resources to all citizens by its active management, and utilization in a transparent, accountable, and environmentally sustainable manner
- Improve the technical and institutional capacity and tools of the agencies involved in the planning, regulating, and management of land and its development
- Align sustainable land management with national development
- Populate the digital land registry with all kinds of entries, updating it regularly, and ensure access of the public to the registry
- Make land-use climate- sensitive
Land Use and Management Strategic Priorities
- Rationalizing agricultural land use
- Using land properly for urbanization
- Mainstreaming sustainable land management in national development programmes
- Developing public education and raising awareness
- Adhering to country’s global and regional commitments
- Utilising the best available information to ensure evidence- based land use policy
- Improving the technical basis for land use proposals, development and utilisation
- Ensuring high levels of compliance with the objectives of the land use policy
- Integrating land and water management
- Ensuring the overall sustainable management of the total state land resources
- Utilizing the land resources of the state for welfare of all citizens
- Ensuring that all state land transfers are done in a transparent and accountable manner
- Ensuring that there is proper knowledge of valuation of the state lands
- Developing appropriate tools and techniques to analyse data
Disaster Management
Vision
The vision of St. Kitts and Nevis with respect to disaster management is to develop a culture of comprehensive disaster management among all sectors of the society within St. Kitts and Nevis in order to save lives and protect property from natural and human-caused hazards and the effects of climate change.
Goals
- Create and continually improve a disaster-resistant environment by the reduction of vulnerability to all hazards
- Improve the national preparedness and response risk management framework to manage the impact of all hazards
- Expand and enhance public awareness of all hazards and climate risks and their potential impact
- Increase, encourage, and promote effective mitigation practices
- Ensure essential services are available pre, during, and post disaster
- Reduce the impact of all hazards on life and property
Disaster Management Strategic Priorities
- Increasing, encouraging, and promoting effective disaster mitigation practices
- Creating and continually improving a disaster resistant environment by reduction of vulnerability to all hazards
- Developing public awareness of all hazards and their potential impacts
- Improving the national preparedness to manage the impact of all hazards
- Ensuring basic services pre, during and after disasters and hazards
- Reducing the impact of all hazards on life and property
