Cuba will present today at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), the IRES project, dedicated to climate resilience in rural communities.

At the Caribbean nation’s pavilion at the event, they will provide details of the work carried out since its launch in 2021 and the work developed with children and adolescents to motivate their families to protect the environment.

IRES, planned for a period of seven years, is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture of the island with technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and financing from the Green Climate Fund.

It works on the rehabilitation of productive landscapes in seven municipalities vulnerable to climate change, with actions such as the clearing of land invaded by marabú and the establishment of agroforestry and silvopastoral modules with impacts on food production.

The project seeks to mitigate the emission of around 2.7 million tons of greenhouse gases by working with 52,000 family farmers, 25,000 of whom are women, and introducing better agroforestry practices on 35,000 hectares of land.

This will also contribute to improving food and nutritional security and increasing the resilience and stability of local food production systems.

Training is therefore an essential part of this initiative, from the producers themselves to managers, technicians and actors from national institutions, who learn about better agro-productive practices, resilience, inclusive communication, environmental safeguards and gender equality.

IRES is the first project in Cuba supported by the Green Climate Fund, which approved US$119 million.