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BY: Christohper Ward, PACRES-USP Partner
28 July 2022, Honiara - A workshop to validate and update the Honiara Botanic Gardens and Honiara CBD Greening and Landscape Master Plan, as well as to conduct project site visits and courtesy visits to Honiara stakeholders, including line ministries, was hosted by the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change and Resilience Building (PACRES) Project.
The one-day workshop in Honiara, Solomon Islands was held on Thursday 28 July 2022 and attended by national stakeholders, the private sector and business partners.
SPREP PACRES Acting Project Manager, Mr Semi Qamese, highlighted the importance of the workshop.
"We must be smart and strategic in our investments, ensuring that we meet your national priorities while also allowing for the expansion of other project works," Mr Qamese said. “We also tried to be flexible in our approach, incorporating some recommendations from the previous Pacific Ecosystems-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) project into the PACRES scaling up work.”
Solomon Islands Director Climate Change Division, Mr Hudson Kauhiona, acknowledged the key role of PACRES.
“This work would not have been completed without the support from PACRES, which we are very fortunate to get this support,” he said. “That is why we see the importance of the Ecosystem Based Adaptation and Development Plans are critical. This is why both master plans will do along way thanks to the PACRES project.”
The PACRES project builds on and expands on the work of the Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) and International Waters (IW) Ridge to Reef (R2R) projects, promoting the use of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) approaches to reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience to climate change in the Mataniko River watershed, Botanic Garden (BG), Barana Nature and Heritage Park (BNHP), and Honiara CBD.
The €12.18 million PACRES is funded primarily by the European Union with targeted support from the Swiss Confederation and the Principality of Monaco (EUR 90k) and is delivered jointly by SPREP, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the Pacific Community (SPC) and the University of the South Pacific (USP).
For more information on the PACRES project, please contact Mr Semi Qamese, Acting Project Manager PACRES [email protected]
