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The Coral Restoration Programme in Soufriere, Saint Lucia, employs 'coral gardeners' to restore endangered elkhorn and staghorn coral species to combat bleaching caused by warming ocean temperatures. Integrated into Saint Lucia's National Adaptation Plan (2018–2028), the initiative is a partnership between the government, non-profits, and the private sector, including CLEAR Caribbean Ltd and the Department of Fisheries. The programme aims to produce 4,000 coral colonies to protect coastal communities from storm surges and support the tourism and fishing sectors, which are critical to the local economy.

The document examines the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of Soufriere, St Lucia, as part of the Global Islands’ Vulnerability Research Adaptation Policy Development (GIVRAPD) project. It utilizes the Local Adaptive Capacity (LAC) framework, which evaluates five elements: asset base, institutions and entitlements, knowledge and information, innovation, and flexible forward-looking decision-making and governance. The paper aims to align the LAC framework with an evolutionary perspective on adaptive capacity and test the tool's applicability across different geographical contexts.

The paper analyzes how the Soufriere Marine Management Area (SMMA) in St. Lucia utilizes institutional adaptive capacity—specifically analytic deliberation, institutional variety, nesting, and networks—to achieve 'governance fit' in the face of environmental change. It finds that while the SMMA has evolved from top-down to participatory governance and demonstrates flexibility in rule application, challenges remain in including new stakeholders and addressing the distributional effects of conservation measures.

This policy brief from the Climate and Development Knowledge Network argues that climate change adaptation in the Caribbean is fundamentally a governance challenge requiring a multi-level approach. It advocates for the creation of networks and hybrid partnerships between state and non-state actors to bridge jurisdictional scales and sectors, using case studies from St. Lucia and Jamaica to illustrate how community-based organizations and public-private partnerships can enhance adaptive capacity.