Improve the ability to adapt to Climate changeStrengthen the institutional capacity to integrate processes led by people, and incorporate local, scientific and technical knowledge in local, regional and national planning are the objectives of a new Codiseño project in Puerto Rico, which will impact – in principle – to three coastal communities.
Planning for locally led climate adaptation (Plate) is the name of the initiative, officially launched in February with a call to decentralized action.
In an interview with The new daythe Manager of Platela, Isatis Cintrón Rodríguezshared that, in this first phase, the areas that will be impacted are sardines, in Snake; La Margarita, in Salinas; and the 23, in Loízathrough regional assemblies on the climate, the training of local and municipal actors, and the development of community plans for adaptation, without ruling out their national involvement.
“These communities with which we are going to work directly are communities that are organized, which have already done different exercises to identify their problems, to define them according to their own terms and their own local context and then, We are not going to literally arrive with something already prescribed, but it is more a collaborative process, that we will try to support what they have already begun to do ”he found, on the other hand, the co -man of Platela, Ariam Torres Cordero.
In that sense, both highlighted, a place prioritizes the local knowledge of communities and recognizes the importance of participatory processes in decision -making and planning adaptation to climate change.
“We want the process to be led by the community, but there is also an accompaniment from local governments so that, in the project, you can see how climate task within the municipality can be strengthened,” said Cintrón Rodríguez. “In addition, we know that, in Puerto Rico, much of what has been in climatic progress comes locally, comes from the communities with all the processes of self -management or comanejo that that entails”he added.
For the project manager, the developments that are made without involving the communities “what they cause is a social injustice and an environmental injustice, since they have the potential to move and seriously affect the ecosystems and those communities that are around the area.”
Through a place, the communities involved will be able to develop climate adaptation plans, in which they will identify the areas that want to impact and the actions to be achieved. As part of these plans, communities and local government officers will receive workshops in tune with the needs in the area.
After establishing the plan, Plate will provide the necessary funds for execution, from a fund of $ 500,000 subsidized by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“The most important thing about this project is that it does not stay in a plan. I believe that it has been said many times that Puerto Rico has a sea of PDFs (documents), but, many times, where we lack and where there are many large gaps is in the implementation ”said Cintrón Rodríguez.
Torres Cordero contributed that there are already recommendations, at the level of public policy, about climatic adaptation, such as “Mitigation, adaptation and resilience law to climate change“(Law 33-2019), and that there is a lot of knowledge on the subject, but that these actions,” although they could work if they are implemented, require political will. ” “So far, we have moved well, very slow in that direction, especially recognizing that every day the climatic impact is greater, the risks are higher and the number of people in vulnerability spaces is very high”held.
At the moment, Platela continues to hold regional assemblies – “Puerto Rico for the weather” – to discuss the development of climate recommendations nationwide and collaborate with local groups. In the next assemblies, they will highlight courses of action that were identified in previous meetings, as well as in the final draft of the Mitigation, adaptation and resilienceprepared by the Committee for experts and advisors on climate change (CEACC) by virtue of Law 33-2019 and that awaits Legislative Action.
According to Cintrón Rodríguez, “it is very important to emphasize the need for participatory processes, public views that can reinforce that monumental work that the CEACC did, but that we understand that it requires community inputs.”
The next assemblies will be on March 15, in Cabo red; March 29, in Attached; And on April 5, in Ceiba.
“The Puerto Rico Agenda is not defined from a federal office, from a presidency office, but this is an agenda that has been identified as a priority by communities”said Cintrón Rodríguez.