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12 13 OPENING LINES B elizewill seek to reduce its vulnerability to climate change and riskwith the imple- mentation of climate resiliencemeasures in the tourismsector and the improvement of disaster riskmanagement governance,through a US$10million loan from the Inter-AmericanDevel- opment Bank (IDB).The project is expected to directly or indirectlybenefit 103,503 people living in Belize Cityand Caye Caulker. Based on losses as a share of GDP,Belize is one of the countriesmost affected byextrememeteorolog- ical events–mostlyhurricanes and tropical storms –in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean.Between 1930 and 2016,the countryhas been hit by16major trop- ical storms,or one everyfive years on average,which affected 287,670 people and causedUS$635million in losses.The tourismsector is particularlyvulnerable to climate risk,and the situation couldworsen in the future due to climate change. The programconsists of two components.The first will seek to reduce climate change risk in the tourism BELIZE TO REDUCE CLIMATEVULNERABILITYWITH IDBASSISTANCE sector.It will include studies and investments to reduce floods in theOrange Street area of Belize City,an areawith a comparativelyhigh climate risk.Plannedworks include a pumping station, the installation of floodgates in canals to control water flow,and actions to control coastal erosion in Palapa Gardens beach on Caye Caulker. The second component deals with disaster riskmanagement governance and climate change adaptation.It will focus on sharing information among keyplayers,funding research efforts,and acquiring software to develop and publicize aweb platformexpected to become the cornerstone for a national climate risk infor- mation system.