A global platform is needed for funding and supporting technology for climate change mitigation projects in Small Island Developing States which are the most vulnerable to the impact of global warming but are the least equipped to cope, according to the President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim.

The World Risk Report 2014 places Mauritius at 14th place among the list of countries at high risk of extreme climatic events. Such events, including sea level rise, could cause migration of people in the 52 SIDS. Though these islands constitute just 1.4 per cent of land surface area they house more than one-third of the world’s life forms and provide as much of ecosystem services to the vulnerable, she said delivering the Millennium Lecture at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). To develop the coping capacity, SIDS must have clear ownership of such measures to mitigate impact of climate change. Mauritius is examining various forms of public private partnerships as getting the licences for such technology will involve IPR. Such collaboration in key areas such as renewable energy call for a global platform, she felt.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim inaugurated through a video conferencing facility a genetic garden of halophytes established by the MSSRF at Vedaranyam, a southern coastal area in Tamil Nadu.

MS Swaminathan said in his concluding remarks, the unique halophytes garden is a valuable genetic resource for developing saline tolerant crops and a rich source of edible oil, proteins, fibre and biofuel.

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