Cli­mate change is high on the agen­da for the In­ter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of the Red Cross. As such, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Cross So­ci­ety is en­gag­ing in cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion and adap­ta­tion in vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties.They have em­barked on a Cli­mate Change project en­ti­tled "Chang­ing Lives and Land­scapes" in the Grande Riv­iere com­mu­ni­ty on the north coast of the is­land.Since 2008, the TT Red Cross has been do­ing dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness train­ing pro­grammes in the Grande Riv­iere area and ad­join­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

It has con­tin­ued to part­ner with them over the years im­prov­ing their prepa­ra­tion to deal with dis­as­ters as they live in an iso­lat­ed part of the is­land. This time around, the Red Cross is work­ing in part­ner­ship with the Grande Riv­iere Tourism De­vel­op­ment Or­gan­i­sa­tion and the Forestry Di­vi­sion on a re­for­esta­tion project.Re­cent­ly, a Red Cross team jour­neyed to Grande Riv­iere to of­fi­cial­ly open the nurs­ery and re­for­esta­tion project. In her open­ing speech the Di­rec­tor Gen­er­al of the TT Red Cross said: "If we pro­tect the cli­mate we will have few­er dis­as­ters."

Af­ter the of­fi­cial open­ing every­one went to a ridge in the Grande Riv­iere for­est to start plant­i­ng. Some trees were plant­ed to act as wind­break­ers, while oth­ers will bear fruit to feed the an­i­mals.This project will be ben­e­fi­cial to the com­mu­ni­ty as forests play an im­por­tant role in the cli­mate sys­tem and most mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty gen­er­ate their liveli­hoods from the for­est.Len Pe­ters, co­or­di­na­tor of the project is very keen on do­ing cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion. He said dur­ing his speech: "De­spite be­ing a small com­mu­ni­ty in an is­land state, we could ad­dress cli­mate change by look­ing at our re­la­tion­ship with the for­est and mit­i­gat­ing any neg­a­tive ef­fects hu­man ac­tiv­i­ty has caused. We can con­tribute in a pos­i­tive way by en­gag­ing in this foresta­tion project."Pe­ters al­so added "ed­u­ca­tion is the key to any­thing sus­tain­able and hav­ing a nurs­ery project on site will give mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty ex­po­sure to train­ing in soil man­age­ment, prop­er for­est use and plant prop­a­ga­tion."

In ad­di­tion, this nurs­ery and re­for­esta­tion project will cre­ate sus­tain­able ac­tiv­i­ty by pro­vid­ing plant­i­ng ma­te­ri­als for farm­ers. Farm­ers and oth­er mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty will get life-sav­ing train­ing they need in First Aid and CPR.More­over, the Red Cross will pro­vide a shred­der to trans­form the com­post heaps in­to use­able ma­te­r­i­al.

Present at the open­ing were Len Pe­ters, Co­or­di­na­tor of the project; John Radg­man, Vish­nu Be­dassie and Lutch­man Ra­goo­nanan of the Forestry Di­vi­sion; Stephen Mc Clatchie of Stake­hold­ers Against De­struc­tion (SAD) for To­co; An­gela Gou­veia, Di­rec­tor Gen­er­al; Au­gus­tus Forde, First Aid Co­or­di­na­tor TTRCS; oth­er mem­bers of the Red Cross; and mem­bers of the Grande Riv­iere com­mu­ni­ty.This project is fund­ed by the Japan­ese Red Cross.