By Ashante Matthew
Create Caribbean is a safe haven for its interns at the Dominica State College. We get the opportunity to conduct research on our chosen assignments which will contribute to the carisealand project. During my first year of being an intern at Create Caribbean, I chose the topic Environmental Law and Policies. Within my topic I focused primarily on the laws that help to protect our environment and wildlife not only from climate change but also from persons who seek to lay waste and despoil our environment’s natural features.
In the course of semester 2, I decided to concentrate mainly on the Climate Resilience Act 16 of 2018. This act was drafted after the island was devastated by the severe events of hurricane Maria. For those who aren’t aware, climate resilience deals with the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate change. Improving climate resilience involves assessing how climate change will create new, or alter current, climate-related risks, and taking steps to better cope with these risks.
Therefore, I conducted research on the aims of this act, persons responsible for executing this act and most importantly how this act will aid in the protection of our nation against the devastating effects of climate change in the near future. However, conducting research on this act has proven to be challenging at times since it is new and there is not much information disseminated about this act. Morover, the aspects which are available to the public state very little on how the country’s government officials are planning on executing their claim to make Dominica the first climate resilient nation.
Being an intern at the Create Caribbean Institute has helped me to grow academically since I am constantly being exposed to different learning techniques and skills from various software programs such as ArcGIS. This institute has also helped me develop my research skills. I am now more capable in conducting research because I am aware of where I need to go to find certain information relevant to my topics, and even when I falter and appear lost at times there are persons available to assist at any given time whether it is the create students or the Create Caribbean management. In conclusion, Create Caribbean helps mold their interns for the real world so that we are more suitable to handle the challenges that life is going to continuously throw at us.