3 keys to Increase Nature-Based Solutions in Caribbean Construction Industry

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean are among the most highly vulnerable countries to climate change hazards which include sea level rise, hurricanes, flooding, droughts, changing rainfall patterns, increased temperatures, and coastal erosion.

Investing in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is critical for the Caribbean owing to the region’s heightened vulnerability to climate impacts and its high dependence on natural resources and reliance on imported materials for the construction sector. Across multiple sectors and infrastructure types, NBS can contribute to reduction in disaster risks such as flooding, reduce resource usage through improved energy efficiency and water management, emissions reduction, and carbon sequestration.

NBS are defined as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.” In the construction industry, this can include “natural features, nature-based features, and approaches that combine natural and gray elements,” such as urban green spaces (urban forests, bioswales, rain gardens, and green roofs); coastal protections, such as coral reefs, mangroves, and horizontal levees; and landslide protections, such as watershed restoration and management, bioretention systems, soil-bioengineering techniques, and permeable pavement.

A recent IDB publication analyzes the challenges, actions, and best practices to increase NBS in the Caribbean. Although the benefits of applying NBS are clear, there are three main challenges to its implementation in the Caribbean:

• NBS are new. Policymakers and project developers have limited experience with NBS projects than with traditional gray (hard engineering) infrastructure. Data on NBS benefits and risks is harder to acquire and there are fewer case studies available. This makes it harder to evaluate the economics of NBS project, expected returns, and performance.
• NBS are complex. NBS projects often involve multiple sectors and government agencies, such as those managing the environment, agriculture, disaster preparedness, water, infrastructure, housing, transportation, tourism, and economic development. This makes policy and decision-making, coordination and implementation of NBS initiatives more difficult and often slower than traditional hard engineering applications.
• NBS require different skills and input materials. Many traditional infrastructure developers do not have experience working with NBS materials and approaches and may not have people with relevant skills and expertise and the overall capacity to implement these initiatives. This aggregated lack of experience, expertise, and capacities increases the perceived risk of NBS projects in Caribbean countries that have few NBS projects as examples.

These three challenges result in barriers at all stages of NBS project implementation, from creating supporting policy and fiscal environments to project definition and design, procurement and granting permits for construction and inspection, to ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

Notwithstanding these challenges, some actions can be taken to address the barriers to the uptake and scale-up of NBS in the Caribbean, such as:

• Increase NBS awareness. The lack of awareness of potential NBS options and their benefits on the part of both policymakers and project developers is a major barrier in the Caribbean. Options to increase NBS awareness in the Caribbean include engaging local communities, organizations, and entrepreneurs in the Caribbean that are actively pursuing NBS projects to learn about their experiences; leverage information from regional organizations to aggregate and disseminate case study examples of NBS projects that have been implemented or are ongoing in the Caribbean; promote learning exchanges by connecting local expertise in the Caribbean with broader Latin American expertise involved in NBS projects; and review NBS experiences and lessons from small island nations in other regions of the world.
• Reduce NBS policy barriers. Government policies, procurement practices, and permitting requirements play a central role in defining how and what projects are completed in the Caribbean. Improving policy support and removing barriers to NBS projects in the Caribbean could include increasing policy coherence across government agencies to support NBS projects, including NBS requirements in relevant procurement processes; adopting natural capital accounting practices that better account for environmental degradation costs and NBS co-benefits can help to integrate NBS support into relevant national policies and strategies.
• Build NBS skills and tools. The lack of relevant skills and available tools to develop NBS projects among both policy and decision-makers and project developers is acute in Caribbean countries with small populations. These limitations can be overcome in the near term by engaging external experts in this field and through other temporary technical engagements. In the medium- to long-term, the region will need to institute mechanisms to increase available skills and capacities to mainstream and localize the use of NBSs. Options to address this challenge include increased awareness of existing tools among policymakers and project developers; expand education and skills training related to NBS solutions.
• Unlock NBS finance. Many countries in the Caribbean face large debt burdens and tight public finances, which have been further compounded as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on global tourism. Financial constraints can limit NBS project uptake even if project economics and expected benefits are strong. Some options to mitigate financial barriers in the Caribbean include highlighting regional case studies of innovative NBS financing, such as blended financing packages that integrate grants, concessionary loans, and commercial loans; resilience bonds; or payments for environmental services; integrate internationally recognized standards and credit rating approaches for sustainable infrastructure into Caribbean NBS project evaluation processes; leverage regional organizations and multi-lateral organizations to aggregate smaller, country-level projects into larger programs to attract large-scale financing and reduce financing costs per project.

Are you interested in including NBS in your projects in the Caribbean? Start here!

There are several measures that can be adopted to increase the use of NBS in the Caribbean. Some best practices from ongoing NBS projects in Latin America and the Caribbean include:

1. “Green the Gray” by integrating NBS options with gray infrastructure. This is an effective measure to reduce gray infrastructure costs, increase co-benefits, and build experience with NBS projects. To maximize benefits, ‘green’ components must be identified and introduced early in the project development. Successful projects integrate the green and gray components rather than implementing the green components as a separate add-on unrelated to the main infrastructure work. In the Caribbean, this approach can help gradually build experience with NBSs without risking long delays in building needed infrastructure.
   
2. Prioritize local community values, needs, and capabilities. NBS projects are most successful with high levels of community engagement and buy-in. This is best achieved where the project is aligned with local values, leverages local knowledge and skills, and brings clear benefits to the local community. In the Caribbean, particular care should be taken to ensure local communities are not displaced or otherwise harmed by NBS projects and benefits, including environmental and recreational co-benefits, are transferred to the local community.
   
3. Include robust monitoring, evaluation, and communication programs. NBS projects require ongoing maintenance and support to ensure they remain viable over the long term. In addition, the co-benefits they bring are often longer-term or difficult to quantify in monetary terms, such as increased green space for recreational opportunities. To ensure these benefits are realized and recognized, projects must include robust monitoring and evaluation. It is also important to continually communicate the project’s status and benefits to the local community, national policymakers, and broader infrastructure development stakeholders to build awareness and familiarity with NBS options.

Do you want to know more about infrastructure resilience in the Caribbean through NBS?
Download the recent IDB Report: Building a more Resilient and Low-carbon Caribbean – Report 4: Infrastructure Resilience in the Caribbean through Nature-Based Solutions.