About eight million dollars, equivalent to a little over 560 million meticais, will be invested by the Mozambican government until the end of this year, for the materialization of resilience projects and mitigation of climate change in areas cyclically affected by natural phenomena.
The amount was announced recently in the city of Inhambane by the National Director of Planning at the Ministry of Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries, Felismina Antia, in the context of the policy review meeting and consultations on strengthening resilience in coastal communities.
The pilot project covers the districts of Inhassoro in Inhambane, Dondo in Sofala province, Nampula and Moma in Nampula, regions chosen due to factors such as population density and dependence of communities on fish, wildlife and forest resources.
With this initiative, which is already being implemented, the intention is to find an ecological balance, through the development of alternative ways to generate income for the communities, while they are involved in the protection of the coastal areas.
In this sense, according to Felismina Antia, the government wants to empower the communities to be increasingly participatory in the management, adaptation and mitigation of climate change that is already being felt throughout the country.
Antia said that the money is being used to purchase equipment and train technicians and members of the communities where the resources are available, to allow better control and protection of the ecosystem.
With this training the communities are educated to find other alternative ways to reduce the pressure on the sea. The Secretary of State in Inhambane province, Ludmila Maguni, said on the occasion that the project is responding to the challenges faced by coastal communities as a result of the climate changes that have taken place in recent years.
For Ludmila Maguni, the objective of this action is to improve the adoption capacity of the local coastal communities through the combination of synergies that allow the materialization of protection plans and resilience to climate change.
The governor mentioned during the meeting that the goal is to strengthen and restore goods and services of marine and coastal ecosystems so that the communities of these locations are recipients to the impacts resulting from climate change in social, economic and ecological aspects.
The recent climatic effects, namely cyclones Chalane, Eloise and Guambe, and the consequent floods that ravaged the province of Inhambane and beyond, are an example of the problems caused by climate change.
Another example pointed out by Ludmila Maguni was the death of 111 dolphins in the Bazaruto archipelago in the district of Inhassoro, where studies refer to stranding after the passage of cyclone Guambe.
