Cape Verde today launched a project worth around 36 million euros to protect natural resources and create income opportunities for communities on four islands, through sustainable agriculture, fishing and tourism and access to financing.
“In practice, this means investing in soil and water conservation, in agroecological transition, in co-management of fisheries, in habitat restoration, and in the valuation of ecosystem services,” explained Kátia Neves, head of the FAO program.
The blue economy has the principle of using marine and coastal resources to generate employment and income, preserving ecosystems, according to the World Bank, while the green economy aims to improve social well-being by reducing environmental risks and using resources more efficiently, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
The project “Accelerating Cape Verde’s transition to a blue and green economy” will last five years, is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by FAO and executed by the Ministry of Environment, Climate Action and Energy, through the National Directorate of the Environment.
The actions cover marine, coastal and terrestrial areas, including protected areas and nature parks, and will support sustainable agriculture and fisheries, nature-based tourism, and access to financing.
According to Kátia Neves, the initiative aims to reconcile biodiversity conservation with economic development through the sustainable use of natural resources and the strengthening of value chains in agriculture, fisheries and community-based tourism.
The project also provides financing mechanisms to facilitate access for producers, community associations and small and medium-sized enterprises to investments linked to the blue and green economy.
Measures are also planned to strengthen national climate and environmental financing mechanisms and to train microfinance institutions, in order to ensure the continuity of the initiatives supported after the five-year duration of the project.
The Minister of Environment, Climate Action and Energy, Carlos Varela, said that the initiative should help improve the living conditions of families that depend on natural resources.
“We will combine these interventions so that, effectively, we undertake sustainable management and the promotion of economically sustainable activities as well,” he said.
Among the beneficiaries are fishermen, women who market fish, and other communities that rely on marine and terrestrial resources for their livelihoods.
Carlos Varela also announced that the Government is preparing a national program to reduce sand extraction and to create income alternatives for families that depend on selling this material to the construction sector.
The minister argued that reducing sand extraction should be accompanied by economic alternatives and by identifying areas where exploitation can be carried out in a controlled manner.
“Our objective is, effectively, to regulate sand extraction,” he stated, considering the environmental impacts caused by this activity to be irreversible.
The removal of sand from beaches and coastal zones fosters erosion and can cause habitat loss by reducing the amount of sediment that naturally protects the coast.
The Government also intends to increase sand production from rock crushing and create conditions to attract private investment to the sector.
“Clearly, this requires involvement in terms of mechanical sand production,” said Carlos Varela, adding that the goal is also to involve the families currently dependent on sand extraction.
The project is expected, in this initial phase, to serve as a model intervention on the four islands covered, and could later be expanded to the remaining Cape Verde islands.
