Small island states in the Caribbean are among the most vulnerable countries in the world to the disruptions of climate change. Their small size and exposed location make them particularly at risk from sea-level rise, extreme weather events, coastal erosion and many other environmental effects. The Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme estimates that the annual cost of climate disruptions in the Caribbean could reach US$10.7 billion by 2025.
Candice York is from Trinidad and Tobago, one of the most at-risk states in the Caribbean because its surface is only a few meters above sea level, and she has personally experienced the impact of climate change on local communities. With a background in Geography and knowing how lives and livelihoods within Caribbean islands are affected by the changing environment, Candice decided to pursue a postgraduate degree focusing on climate change mitigation. With the help of a Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarship (QECS), she completed her Master’s in Climate Change Mitigation and Resilience in April 2024 at Fiji National University (FNU) in Fiji, a country which is facing similar issues in the Pacific. This distance learning programme offered her the opportunity to pursue studies and research focusing on adaptation, mitigation, and resilience of indigenous communities in response to climate change and to learn from the experience of the Pacific Islands in dealing with these issues.
Surfacing indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation
According to the United Nations, indigenous peoples are among the first to face the direct consequences of climate change, due to their close relationship and reliance on the environment and its resources. Climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by indigenous communities, including political and economic marginalisation, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination, and unemployment. However, indigenous peoples also possess skills and knowledge that are critical to the climate response, therefore increasing their participation in climate policy is crucial. During her QECS studies Candice did extensive research on the adaptation of farmers in the Caribbean to climate change during which she found out that they have been adapting in their own ways for a very long time.
‘There are little pockets of indigenous knowledge that are being used to develop strategies, but actually engaging the indigenous communities, I think, is lacking. Just the general knowledge from the average person in terms of these communities and some of their strategies, some of the ways they have adapted, I don't think it exists, so there is a lot of technical information that the average person may not be able to understand. Getting those basic things that indigenous communities do that people could better relate to and could probably even apply in their own situations, I think, would be useful. To me, it's important.’
The Paris Agreement stipulates that when taking action to address climate change, the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities should be respected, promoted and considered. The Conference of the Parties (COP) has recognised the need to strengthen knowledge, technologies, practices and efforts of local communities and indigenous peoples related to addressing and responding to climate change. However, reaching these communities can sometimes be challenging for a researcher. Despite this, Candice thinks that learning from their experiences of climate adaptation and mitigation is important, therefore she wants to create a digital platform accessible to indigenous communities for them to easily present their ideas and strategies, at the same time retaining clear ownership of their intellectual property. To progress with this idea, Candice is developing an indigenous communities mapping tool, where she is seeking to create a regional map of communities’ locations.
‘The idea was that you can [use a digital platform to] go to any one of those communities, you can click on it and see their work presented from their own point of view and some of the things that they're doing. It would mean collecting that kind of information from them and putting it on a platform so that others can then interact with it.’
Candice thinks that her Master’s studies helped her to develop this idea. She found it particularly interesting to learn how members of indigenous communities were being integrated into academia in the Pacific Islands by giving them a platform in all policy discussions to hear how these policies could affect their lifestyle. She was inspired by this and is advocating for a similar approach in the Caribbean.
Educating and empowering youth to develop local solutions to climate change
As an educator teaching secondary school students, Candice believes in the power of youth initiatives. Therefore, she wanted her Master’s studies to specifically help her develop educational climate change action initiatives for Caribbean youth. Previously, she had judged a competition that saw students from across the Caribbean design renewable transport energy projects. Two pressing needs emerged for Candice through that experience. Firstly, there needed to be an educational initiative that provided students with a scientific explanation of the region’s issues which would be understandable for them. Secondly, students needed to be given opportunities to implement their ideas since they have the ability, enthusiasm, and drive to create serious change in relation to climate action. Candice therefore developed a regional climate change action platform plan that focuses on the application of the education received and on the dissemination of information.
‘This information will focus heavily on climate change science, impacts, adaptations, mitigation and the building of resilient communities. A key feature will be the ability for students and young advocates throughout the Caribbean to submit community-based project ideas to the platform’s network and receive expert advice that will guide the successful implementation of these projects.’
Candice also hopes that the successes of these projects could be shared through online media, providing guidance for communities throughout the region wishing to implement similar low-cost projects.
Candice acknowledges the role of QECS in helping her to develop new networks. Specifically, she attended check-in sessions with fellow scholarship awardees which allowed them to understand each other’s work, areas of interest and ideas.
‘I believe the scholarship provided an opportunity for me to add to the discussion on climate change and agriculture in the Caribbean. I have also been exposed to a number of networks that are doing work within the Caribbean which provides a platform for me to able to also contribute to the initiatives needed to bring about change in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation.’
‘I look at some of the projects that are happening within the Commonwealth and realise that persons are getting things done. Being able to contribute to that is very inspiring.’
Candice believes that knowledge and skills acquired through her Master’s studies help her in her current work:
‘A lot of the discussions [at FNU], especially for one of the courses that I did on policy, really helped me to think about how to channel ideas into effecting policy…it's all well and good to think about, oh, I want to do this, but then, from a policy perspective, if you don't think about how you can change those policies, it could become a roadblock to some effective change.’
Currently Candice’s ambition is to influence those policy changes, but more importantly she wants to facilitate youth-initiated community-level initiatives which would change the common practices and behaviours in areas such as use of energy or agriculture, so that communities can become more resilient.
‘My focus is on climate change action in the Caribbean, therefore my project is focused on empowering young people in the Caribbean to design and implement climate change related projects. Its focus is on providing leadership training as well as guidance in the project design and implementation process. The target group is secondary school students within the Caribbean between the ages of 13-18. The main outcomes will include climate change education as well as climate change action related to adaptation and mitigation. The goal is to have an annual cycle of projects with an annual presentation of project outcomes via a forum that would allow participants to interact with each other.’
Learning more about Pacific and future plans
The experience of studying at FNU was transformative for Candice also in relation to her understanding of the Pacific region and the Commonwealth more generally:
‘For me, it was very eye-opening, especially because they’re on the other side of the world. You think that your cultures may be different, and your perspectives on things may be different because of differences in culture but, I think, from a lot of those interactions, I realised we do have a lot of the same issues. Our historical backgrounds are very similar, and you get to see how some of that history also led to some of the same cultural complications. Getting to realise that we do have some of the same challenges, therefore means some of the collaboration that takes place could be a little bit wider since we are trying to solve some of the same problems.’
In the future Candice hopes to pursue a PhD in Geography which will allow her to research more on indigenous communities or agriculture. However, her primary focus is still to design tangible initiatives that will make a practical difference in people’s lives.