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| Prof Sunita Facknath ( on the Right), from the Faculty of Agriculture, recipient of one of the grant awards for the project |
The Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Mauritius, Marjaana Sall said:
- "The European Union is committed in
making the Paris Agreement work and in supporting our partners in
implementing it. Today's grants to increasing resilience of small
farmers to the effects of climate change bear testimony of EU's strong
partnership with Mauritius to fight climate change."
The Minister of Agro Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Kumar Seeruttun said:
- “As an island state, Mauritius is
highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This has a direct
impact on the agricultural sector because our farming activities are
directly exposed to climatic conditions. We urgently need to adopt
climate smart agricultural practices to increase resilience of our small
planters to the effects of climate change to ensure food security”
During the ceremony, three grants for a total amount of more than 50 million Rupees were awarded to the
University of Mauritius, the Irrigation Authority and the Mauritius
Chamber of Agriculture for the implementation of their projects, namely:
i) Transformation of Belle Mare into a Climate-Smart Agriculture
village for climate resilience, food security, and poverty alleviation
of its farmers; ii) Improving Resilience of Small Holders to the effect
of climate change; and iii) Smart Agriculture: Transition towards agro
ecological climate-resilient food cropping systems in Mauritius.
These three grants add up to the first
grant of 40 million rupees that the EU awarded to the Commission of
Social Security of the Rodrigues Regional Assembly in July this year.
The four grants have been awarded following a comprehensive call for
proposals' procedure.
This new EU support, funded under the
Global Climate Change Alliance Flagship Initiative (GCCA+), targets
climate smart agriculture initiatives that will bring about an
improvement in water availability to smallholders, adoption of new
technologies, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), all
leading to an increase in revenue of smallholders. This is in line with
the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) that Mauritius presented at
the COP 21 Conference in 2015.
EU - Mauritius partnership to tackle climate change
The European Union (EU) partners with the
Republic of Mauritius in the fight against climate change through policy
dialogue, capacity-building projects and climate finance.
The EU and the Government of Mauritius
have started a policy dialogue on climate change at technical level to
pave the way for a dialogue at ministerial level. This policy dialogue
at ministerial level is scheduled for 24 September, during the second EU
Climate diplomacy week. It will be an opportunity to agree on how we
can best work together and support the implementation of the Paris
Agreement.
Moreover, the European Union is partnering
with the Government to green the tourism industry by stimulating
Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) practices along the tourism
value chain under the Switch Africa Green programme. The EU also
accompanies businesses, including small and medium enterprises, in their
transition to a green economy in key areas such as transport, energy,
tourism, agriculture and farming.
Mauritius also benefits from EU support with the Programme National d'efficacité énergetique
(PNEE), a joint initiative of the private sector, the public sector and
international partners, the Energies programme implemented by the
Indian Ocean Commission, and the SUNREF Indian Ocean, an initiative of Agence Française de Développement, which promotes green investment.
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