Climate Change Adaptation in Latin America & The Caribbean: What Will it Take to Build Resilient Communities?

Global climate change trends indicate that even with mitigation efforts, our planet will continue warming into the next century, leading to more extreme climate conditions and weather events. The Latin America and Caribbean region is particularly vulnerable to some of the most challenging aspects of climate change. The Wilson Center has been part of an effort to convene key stakeholders in the region and to explore promising tools in climate change adaptation through a series of seminars. Recently top experts and policymakers from those seminars in Colombia, Barbados, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Peru, gathered at the Center to further broaden the dialogue. Biologist and Wilson Center consultant, Carmen Lacambra, provides Context on progress and remaining challenges.

Carmen L. Lacambra is a biologist and has developed her career in the field of conservation and integrated coastal zone management focusing on the inclusion and integration of sustainable development, risk management, climate change, and ecosystems both in Europe and Latin America. Her PhD in geography from the University of Cambridge examined the inclusion of the environment on coastal disasters vulnerability assessments in tropical areas of the Neotropics; she also has a Masters in Coastal Zone Management. Carmen has been involved in global, regional and national scale projects that include UNEP-WCMC in UK, the Permanent Commission of the South Pacific (CPPPS), the Colombian Oceanographic Commission and INVEMAR and has worked with partners such as UNDP, WWF, IUCN, TRAFFIC, TNC and Birdlife International. She is a founding partner of Grupo Laera based in Bogota, Colombia. This is a multi-disciplinary consultancy team with input from the corporate, academic and multilateral agencies. Grupo Laera is working with GCAP on urban adaptation, giving advice on national adaptation strategies, undertaking climate proofing for medium and small businesses, providing adaptation training and capacity, as well as building ecosystem's adaptation to climate change.