When I visited my family in Nicaragua after Hurricane Irma in September, I was thrilled to have 24/7 fast internet—a luxury we don’t yet have at Finca Tungasuk (as you may know, internet access is still challenging in the Cuban countryside, though hopefully that will change soon!). While I was there, I saw a Facebook link announcing an upcoming UN CC: e-Learn Platform course: “The National Adaptation Plans: Building Climate Resilience in Agriculture.”

Being away from the farm allowed me the time and distance to process what had just happened to us and to roughly 75% of the island. We had just endured a very active hurricane season in 2017, and it was my first time experiencing the impact of a severe weather event like Hurricane Irma from the countryside. We lost some trees and sustained damages, but we fared relatively “well” compared to the central and eastern parts of the country. (You can find more information in this report on Hurricane Irma and Cuba). I immediately started questioning what we could have done to avoid some of the losses and damages caused by the wind on the farm, and what measures we could take to prepare for another event like it.

It felt like perfect timing to gain access to such a vast reservoir of resources on climate change information, mitigation, and adaptation actions.

After experiencing a hurricane firsthand and witnessing the agricultural sector’s fragility in the face of such weather events—while simultaneously seeing how adaptive and strong nature can be—I decided to take on this online course once I was back in Cuba. The course started on November 13th, and I flew back to the island on the 15th. I knew internet access would be limited once I was back at the farm, but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by. Especially since we often rely on family, volunteers, and friends to bring books or magazines on sustainable agriculture, but sometimes we lack access to a broader range of reading materials or immediate Google searches when we need answers to specific crop-related problems. When I saw the extensive list of reading resources and the institutions involved in the course, there was no room for doubt.

This course also provided an excellent opportunity to share and exchange information, experiences, and expertise with people from different parts of the globe (through the forum and peer assessments on the platform). It connected me with individuals familiar with or facing similar climate change risks and impacts, such as long drought periods, extreme weather events, intense rainfalls, erosion, and more.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining at all: internet access has improved A LOT since we moved to Finca Tungasuk in 2014. Since December 2016, we’ve had a Wi-Fi hotspot in our municipal city, Caimito, which is just 7 km from the farm. Before that, we had to travel all the way to another town (Bauta) or Havana just to check our Gmail accounts or Google whatever we needed. We got used to it; in fact, I started making checklists before heading to the Wi-Fi spot so I wouldn’t forget anything on my “waiting list.” But doing a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) with limited internet access was a whole new experience for me. I’d done a few online courses on the edX.org platform related to food, wellness, and nutrition while living in France, and more recently, during my time in Nicaragua.

Doing one from Cuba, however, required extra time, extra economic resources (the good news is that an hour of internet connection is now cheaper at 1 CUC/hour!), and the effort of crossing our neighbors’ creek, grabbing a vintage car taxi ride, and then a bicitaxi (like a pedicab) to get there. In fact, it turned out to be a good opportunity to visit our neighbors more often and strengthen our community ties.

I would definitely do it again and encourage everyone hesitant about enrolling in an online course from the island to go for it. It requires a little extra organization and foresight because you might encounter some internet connection problems. I’d recommend doing it in two steps: dedicate one day to downloading the reading materials and watching the lecture videos, and another day to doing the quizzes, participating in the forums, replying to comments, etc.

For those curious to learn how one can contribute on a personal, local level to mitigate and adapt to climate change, regardless of your profession or background, I highly recommend checking out the UN CC:eLearn Platform: Think, Talk, Act Climate.

About the Course:

The National Adaptation Plans: Building Climate Resilience in Agriculture Course was structured in 6 weeks:

  • Week 1: Climate Change Adaptation, Agriculture, and Food Security: Introduction
  • Week 2: International Frameworks and National Adaptation Planning
  • Week 3: Identifying and Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Risks
  • Week 4: Identifying and Prioritizing Adaptation Actions in Agriculture
  • Week 5: Governance, Coordination, and Finance
  • Week 6: Communication, Monitoring, and Evaluation

The course aimed to help participants understand the nexus between climate change adaptation, agriculture, and sustainable development. It taught how agriculture can be considered when formulating and implementing national adaptation planning, based on advice and experience from leading experts. This was delivered through weekly lecture videos, notes, forums, case studies from countries like the Philippines, polls, and additional resources. It was also a great opportunity to share our own experience at Finca Tungasuk and receive feedback and contributions from other participants.

Some of the questions addressed during the course were:

  • How can we better link local, farming knowledge with scientific knowledge?
  • How can we bridge the gap between the limit of what communities can do on their own and what government and other services need to do?

After the course, participants would be able to:

  • Identify types and sources of knowledge and information needed for adaptation planning.
  • Identify tools for modeling climate change impacts and mainstreaming gender in adaptation planning.
  • Discuss examples of different adaptation options in agriculture.
  • Integrate Traditional Knowledge into Adaptation Planning.
  • Identify interlinkages between climate change, agriculture, and food security, and the role of national adaptation planning.
  • Recognize differentiated climate change impacts on livelihoods and gender in agriculture.
  • Describe the basic elements of an integrated communications strategy.
  • Distinguish coordination and governance aspects of implementing adaptation actions in agricultural sectors.

Now, it’s time for Finca Tungasuk to implement some of these new tools and learning materials we have in our hands (especially useful for smallholder farmers like us!) to adapt to climate change. We are committed to practicing sustainable and conservation agriculture as much as possible, which has not been an easy path to follow, but it’s worth every effort. Our focus is on long-term solutions to address climate risks and vulnerabilities.

Happy holidays from Finca Tungasuk, Annabelle

#CCLearnAlumni, #thinkclimate, #climatechange, #hurricaneirma, #cuba