The Dominican Republic is a country with a unique biodiversity. Its many terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems are characterized by a high percentage of plant and animal species that are found nowhere else in the world.
This biodiversity is essential to the island’s sources of almost everything essential for life: food, clean air, water of sufficient quality and quantity, healthy soils and natural barriers that protect the population from disasters. These resources are vital in a country that is highly vulnerable to the climate-related disasters.
"The Dominican Republic is one of the countries most affected by climate change," says Angel Ortiz, climate and environment focal point for the Dominican Red Cross. "Its effects are reducing access to clean water, increasing flooding, causing longer droughts, and reducing community income."
As ecosystems degrade, biodiversity declines and communities become more vulnerable to climate-related disasters that affect their well-being and threaten their livelihoods.
"One of the main threats is deforestation and the irrational hunting of fish and flamingos," says Betania Luisa Guevara, a resident of El Cajuil, a village in the Laguna de Oviedo. "Another big problem is the lack of water, the drought. Here, being an arid place, it rains very little and we don't have pipelines to access drinking water."
The Dominican Republic has suffered up to a 50-per cent decrease in average rainfall over the past 60 years, according to some estimates. This comes along with a significant reduction in its forests and recurring exposure to hurricanes and storms.
"When it rains a lot, when the river rises, it overflows and floods the community because there is no drainage for the water to go out," says Ana María Frómeta, a neighbor of the Acapulco community of Río San Juan. "When the sea is not rough, the water comes out immediately. But if the sea is rough, the water stays because the two collide and there is no way out."
Despite the threats and risks, these communities dream of a future where communities become stronger by protecting nature. Nature, in turn, is then healthy enough to protect them.
Mangroves act as a natural barrier that reduces the impact of flooding and storm surges. Unfortunately, mangroves are being threatened by pollution, destruction and overfishing.
Photo: Susana Arroyo/IFRC
Biodiversity, climate change and the Red Cross are linked.
As part of their communities, the Red Cross has first-hand knowledge of the relationship between communities and their ecosystems.
The Dominican Red Cross, the IFRC and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) , therefore, are working with three communities (El Cajuil, in the province of Pedernales; Hato de Mana, in the province of La Altagracia; and Acapulco, in the province of María Trinidad Sánchez) to identify the opportunities that nature offers to improve their well-being and reduce their vulnerability.
"In these three locations, we used community diagnostics to listen to the people and identify their concerns and possible solutions to address these issues," said Lilian Ayala, IFRC Senior Climate Action and Community Resilience Officer.
The Dominican Red Cross developed community assessments to listen to the people and identify their concerns and possible solutions.
Photo: Susana Arroyo/IFRC
In El Cajuil, for example, one of the community's main concerns is the loss of the ecosystem of the Laguna de Oviedo, the area's main tourist attraction, largest fishing reservoir and main source of income. This hypersaline lagoon is threatened by pollution, mangrove destruction and overfishing.
The Red Cross is trying to respond to this reality, in part by implementing nature-based solutions (NBS). NBS are measures that help communities reduce disaster risks, adapt to climate change and generate economic resources. At the same time, they protect, restore and sustainably manage ecosystems.
In the case of El Cajuil, the restoration and conservation of the mangrove forest, waste management, home gardens and the recovery of species in the lagoon would allow the community to continue to live off the sustainable use of the lagoon and reduce the impact of flooding thanks to the protective barrier created by the mangroves.
What would a community that builds resilience by relying on nature-based solutions look like?
"My dream community would be one where our relationship with nature would be one of brotherhood, of mutual help,” imagines Betania Luisa Guevara, a neighbor of Cajuil.
“We would contribute to the preservation of nature, and nature would give us its shade, its fruits, its fish. It would be a place where all the people would be trained to fight deforestation, to manage garbage well, to rationalize water, and to take care of nature,"
"It would be a community with sustainable sources of employment; in the tourism sector, we would be 100 percent trained to provide better service. And we would have excellent conditions in education and health," she concludes.
For her part, Ana María envisions Acapulco as a clean community, with fully restored mangroves that would act as a natural barrier against the sea. They would also have drainage systems that would prevent the rivers from overflowing.
Betania Luisa Guevara is the village midwife in El Cajuil, where the Laguna de Oviedo is located. She attends the births of both women and cows.
Photo: Susana Arroyo/IFRC
The future we dream of is built together
The path to a sustainable and resilient future is clear: only by working together - communities, local authorities, public institutions and local Red Cross teams - can we conserve biodiversity and protect communities and their livelihoods from the challenges of climate change.
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This initiative is part of the Global Climate Resilience Program. A total of 23 National Societies in the IFRC Americas Region are participating in this project.