Projects aimed for agricultural producers to adapt to climate change will begin this fall.
Agricultural producers from all over the Kootenays participated in a series of workshops to identify the key impact areas like increased wildfires, flooding and warmer, dryer summers. The Climate Action Initiative (CAI) developed strategies and will implement “actions” outlined in the The Kootenay and Boundary Adaptation Strategies Plan.
The Kootenay and Boundary Adaptation Strategies Plan is filled with charts and data that paint a somewhat worrying picture of what is to come if global temperatures continue to rise.
Details on which projects will be started first have yet to be released. The total budget provided by the Federal and Provincial government is $300,000 .
“Our government is committed to helping Canadian farmers and ranchers be better prepared and supported to adapt to a changing climate,” said Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. “This project will see regional partners working together to adapt to their unique climate change conditions and keep B.C.’s agri-food sector strong and growing.”
Each project or “action” has a budget attributed to it and may be found at the end of the Kootenay and Boundary Adaptation Strategies Plan. Many include, but are not limited to working directly with agricultural producers to collect more data.
A working group with 14 representatives from the agricultural sector and regional and provincial governments will oversee development of these projects, and CAI will manage project implementation. Up to eight projects are scheduled for completion in the region by 2022. The Kootenay and Boundary Regional Adaptation Strategies Plan is the seventh regional plan developed in the province as part of the Regional Adaptation Program delivered by CAI.