 The community of Bexaw is well known for being prone to flooding, particularly during the hurricane season. The Department of Forestry in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, through the ACP MEA's 3 project, is continuing efforts to increase climate resilience, this time through the restoration of the riverbank along the cul-de-sac river. Persons from the community of Bexaw and its surrounding areas were invited to a meeting with the Department of Forestry officials and other field experts to express their concerns and discuss the way forward with the restoration project. National Project Coordinator for the ACP MEA's 3 project, Li Shanmon Rose, notes that the project aims to rehabilitate approximately 8 kilometers along the riverbank. She explains that it was critical to include the community in the decision-making process to ensure the project's sustainability. The Food and Agriculture Organization is very keen on promoting climate resilience within the agriculture sector. Under the ACP MEA's 3 projects, we're focused on biodiversity mainstreaming and sustainable agriculture. In planting those trees, we hope in the long run to achieve some sort of rehabilitation of the ecosystems along the riparian zone. This community is really close to my heart and I believe that in re-vegetating the riverbanks, we will help to mitigate some of the flooding that we experience with every heavy rainfall event. Maybe not within our lifetime, but our children will benefit and our grandchildren will benefit. Several issues were identified along the riverbank during the initial walkthrough with technical experts including erosion, deforestation and waste disposal. According to the Chief Forestry Officer, Alvin Donnelly, continued benefits for the community and its residents remain a priority of the project. What we hope to encourage even as we continue into the project is that we would have the continued participation of the community persons in terms of doing the rehabilitation, the planting of trees along the riverbanks and we're not only looking at just forest trees, but we're also looking at a mix of doing agroforestry. Persons, private landowners, you know, can also benefit from, you know, that activity. So we would be looking to provide them with with certain plants of economic importance, you know, so while they're protecting, you know, the riverbanks, doing planting to protect the riverbanks, you know, they can as well benefit. The Chief Forestry Officer reiterates the Ministry of Agriculture's commitment to continuing efforts to protect the nation's natural resources and increase the agricultural sector's climate resilience. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.