THE Community Adaptation Pathways in Solomon Islands (CAPSI) project successfully held a four days ‘Train the Trainer’ workshop, 25-28 September, in Honiara to increase adaptive capacities for four vulnerable communities.
The four communities are Nusatuva community on Kolombamgara Island, Western province,
Riguru community on Nusa Simbo Island, Western province, Luanuia Island, Ontong Java Island, Malaita province, and four villages (Siara, Tupa, Tiviale, Kerekoka) in Tathimboko, Guadalcanal province.
CAPSI aims to empower communities in Solomon Islands to find and pursue their own ways to resilience.
This project will provide communities with a framework for longer-term thinking, intergenerational planning and a system’s view of individual and community adaptation.
Empowered with greater understanding of potential climate change and other pressures, communities will be supported through a process to identify adaptation actions that build on their strengths and reduce the risk of bad outcomes.
Workshop facilitator Dr James Butler from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said the workshop was attended by the four communities’ facilitators to allow them to discuss issues about climate change, population growth, cultural change, economic change and social change.
He said the communities, which have already experienced tsunami, sea level rise and flooding, were chosen by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Plan International Australia (PIA) because the organisations have a track record of working with them.
“We hope that we will have 25 community representatives who will understand the issues and go back to their communities and can do the planning properly with their communities’ leaders and come up
with their own adaptation pathways.
“And we hope that if we can start with these first communities, working with other partners like the Solomon Island Government and other donors, maybe we can use the same approach in other locations as well,” Dr Butler said.
The time frame for CAPSI project is two years, July 2018-June 2020. During the first year they plan and analyse strategies, and the second year they implement some ‘No Regrets Strategies’- things that need to be done straight away because they will help communities adapt to change.
The implementing partners are: Plan International Australia (PIA), Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia and Solomon Islands, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian National University (ANU) and is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
