10043822-Implementation Support National Ecosystem Assessments in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Caribbean ecosystems are exceptionally rich in biodiversity and provide essential services for climate resilience, economic activity and social development. However, biodiversity is declining due to resource overexploitation, habitat loss, unsustainable agriculture, pollution and climate change. Ecosystem values are often insufficiently reflected in decision-making, partly because national assessments and relevant data are lacking. Inclusive assessments are also needed to better understand how different groups, including women, young people, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, use and benefit from biodiversity. National Ecosystem Assessments (NEAs) are nationally led processes that bring together scientific, government, local and traditional knowledge. They assess biodiversity and ecosystem services, their status and trends, drivers of change, impacts on people and the effectiveness of responses. By addressing national policy questions, NEAs aim to integrate the value of nature into planning and decision-making. The regional CARIBIO project, "Promotion of regionally harmonised approaches to the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in CARICOM member states", is financed by Germany"s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ. Led by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), it runs from July 2025 to June 2028. Its outputs include strengthening CARICOM"s coordination role, promoting NEAs in national development planning and supporting access and benefit-sharing mechanisms in selected member states. The project builds on the experience of Grenada which conducted the Caribbean"s first NEA in 2019-2023, and on lessons from other countries. The Grenada experience showed the need to adapt guidance to small-island contexts, where published data and national expertise may be limited. It also demonstrated how surveys, interviews, workshops and participatory mapping can complement scientific research and government data, strengthen local ownership and improve the relevance of findings. Lessons learned will be shared through CARICOM"s sub-regional Technical and Scientific Cooperation Centre, the PANORAMA knowledge platform and the Sub-Global Assessment Network to inform future assessments and regional cooperation.