After a short and very choppy ride through the Bay of Samaná, my little speed boat entered the mouth of the Yuna River, one of the most important river systems in the Dominican Republic. The Yuna is at the center of the country’s ambitions to deploy Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen the resilience of people and lands in the face of climate change as part of the Nature, People and Climate (NPC) investment program of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF). The river is about 185 kilometers (115 miles) long and provides many Dominicans with irrigation and drinking water. This watershed houses a great variety of plants and animals, including some species endemic to the region, and supports large forests that provide carbon storage, soil conservation, and ecosystem services vital to economic activities such as agriculture, livestock rearing, fishing, tourism, and mining.
My boat trip marked the start of an initial NPC scoping mission run by government partners from the National Council for Climate Change, and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) as the lead multilateral development bank (MDB) partner for this program. This scoping, which included participation from the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and several key national stakeholders, kicked off a process that will lead to the development of an investment plan based on NbS that is expected to be completed and presented for approval by the CIF Trust Fund Committee in early 2024.
We passed through a healthy mangrove forest that ran so wide on both sides of the river that a blanket of green blocked the view of the horizon. But eventually, we reached an area where mangroves had been cleared to give way for coconut trees and cattle raising, leaving the water’s edge bare. Here, mangrove trees that had once served as critical nurseries for fish while also helping to buffer against storms and sequester carbon, had disappeared. We saw that water lilies had proliferated in the area, signaling that the water quality had likely been impacted by high levels of nutrients and fertilizers from upstream mono-culture rice production. The lilies grew so thick that they eventually blocked the passage of our boats. As we sat stopped, I thought about how the integrated land use threats I was seeing aligned well with the design of the NPC program. But this thought didn’t leave me comforted.
Since joining the Climate Investment Funds to run the NPC program, I have presented a nice, neat slide deck that lays out how land management practices in forest and agriculture areas can affect people and livelihoods further downstream, while also contributing to climate change and exacerbating its impacts. But now, seeing the cocktail of threats and impacts up close, the complexity of the issues and what will be required to address them became even more real.
Next, the group headed up the watershed and visited the rice-growing region. We heard from leaders of rice cooperatives about the challenges that they have with the water supply due to the variability of rainfall and their ideas of solutions that would support them. On day two, we went to a protected area in Constanza, in the upper watershed of the Yuna, to better understand the actions required to reduce deforestation. At this stop, we met with community members who had once lived in the Valle Nuevo National Park in the Central Mountains of the Dominican Republic, but had to be relocated to the buffer zone. They were provided with housing and economic opportunities through Villa Poppy, a government-supported mixed-crop farming facility. The story that community leaders Bernardo and Luis shared was the most inspiring part of the trip. They explained that after years of scratching out a subsistence livelihood in the National Park while residing in housing with dirt floors and plastic roofs, they received upon relocation a zero percent loan from the national agriculture bank to purchase equipment for intercropped farming. Their produce is now purchased by hotels and restaurants, from chain to high-end. The quality of life of the community has improved along with the prospects for reducing forest loss in the area of the park where they once lived.
The field trip was followed by two days of meetings at the IDB office, starting with a high-level session involving Max Puig, Executive Vice-President of the National Council for Climate Change; Darío Vargas, Deputy Minister of Agriculture; Elpidio Tineo, Director of water and resources of the Ministry of Environment; Katharina Falkner Olmedo, IDB Resident Representative; Alexandria Valerio, World Bank Resident Representative, and several other national and local stakeholders. Subsequent sessions provided updates from several organizations that are currently undertaking environmental, social and economic support activities in the Yuna watershed.
This mission accelerated a collaborative dialogue on NbS to support the protection and recovery of the Yuna basin, including actions to reduce deforestation, coastal and soil erosion, clearing of mangroves, and stem the flow of pollution from rice and other agricultural production. The partners also started to work on how best to support vulnerable watershed communities whose lives and livelihoods are being impacted by climate change. While the investment planning process will be ongoing for a while, there is now an initial roadmap to help fill gaps in understanding of threats and potential strategies that might be employed through the NPC program.
After CIF Trust Fund Committee approval is secured for the plan, projects led by the CIF’s MDB partners can begin to roll out for implementation. Together, these projects will contribute to the Dominican Republic’s efforts to address climate change and environmental challenges while recognizing human and livelihood needs. We hope that these efforts will benefit the Yuna River basin, the Dominican people, and our planet.
Climate Investment Funds
Paul is a new addition to the Climate Investment Funds team. He brings more than two decades of experience in natural resource management to his role as Team Lead of all the CIF's nature solutions programs. They include Nature, People and Climate Investment Program (NPC), and the Forest Investment Program (FIP).
Previously, in his work at the Global Environment Facility, Paul led the strategic design and rollout of its USD346-million Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program. Its aims are to reduce deforestation, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and diminish biodiversity loss in 27 countries.
He also spent 15 years in Southeast Asia, leading field projects that were focused on forestry, biodiversity conservation, and climate change.
Paul holds a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, Washington, DC.