Earth Today | EFJ awards $70-plus million in grants
Published:Thursday | January 13, 2022 | 12:08 AM
SEVENTEEN ENTITIES, including a number of schools as well as non-governmental and community-based organisations, recently received grant funding to the tune of more than $74 million from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) to support capacity building and climate change readiness.
The grants – awarded in December following a call for proposals issued earlier in 2021 – were provided through the EFJ’s Forest Conservation Fund (FCF) and the Special Climate Change Adaptation Fund (SCCAF), which it manages for the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation through financing provided by the Inter-American Development Bank.
Beneficiaries under the FCF include the Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust and the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation that have been awarded $8 million and $2.7 million, respectively, for capacity building.
Other beneficiaries include the Southern Trelawny Environmental Agency and the Windsor Research Centre, as well as the local forest management committees of Northern Cockpit Country, Northern Cockpit Country and Sawyers. They have been provided with funding of between $4.5 million and $7 million each for research work and, among other things, the upgrade of project vehicles.
Little Bay All-Age and Boundbrook Primary schools have been provided with $5 million and just over $4.9 million, respectively, under the SCCAF. They are doing rainwater harvesting projects that include the construction of 15,000-gallon water tanks at both institutions.
At Little Bay, the project is also to see the establishment of a small solar-powered irrigation system that supports the school garden. The Boundbrook project includes the construction of a pump room and the installation of guttering and plumbing.
Also among the list of SCCAF beneficiaries are the Northern Clarendon Aquaponics Cluster and the Ritchies Community Development Committee that have each been provided with close to $1.4 million to boost security arrangements for their aquaponics farms.
The University of the West Indies Department of Physics is another of the beneficiaries, having been approved for $450,000 to support the publication of research focused on a model for irrigation benefits for cassava in Jamaica.
Chief Executive Officer for the EFJ, Barrington Lewis, has indicated that another call for proposals will be issued in the first quarter of this year.