Rising waters. In Martinique, residents of the Caribbean coast anticipate and demonstrate resilience

Its shore stretches peacefully at the foot of Mount Pelée, at the very top of Martinique’s Caribbean coast. The gentleness of the landscapes surrounding Le Prêcheur says nothing of the threats hovering over the town which takes its name from a large rock – now disappeared – whose shape recalled that of a preacher in the pulpit. However, here, it is a bit like the commune of all risks: earthquake, volcanic eruption with fiery clouds, devastating cyclones, immense waves which swallow up the fishermen’s shelters like nothing. Not to mention the lahars, these mudflows loaded with volcanic rocks which carry away and destroy everything in their wake. Aside from snow avalanches, the town has already experienced everything. Resilient by nature, it is today preparing for a new type of risk: that linked to the erosion of its coastline and rising water levels due to climate change.

Jean-Guy, Charles and Pierre, all in their sixties, remember the football matches they played in their childhood on the beach. Now, in the same place, there is barely a ping-pong table. Tomorrow, or rather by the end of the century, they know that their coastline will be reduced drastically and that some of the inhabitants will no longer be able to live there. Without waiting to be directly confronted with the dramatic consequences of global warming, the municipality has already launched an ambitious project to relocate its most exposed citizens to provide them with lasting shelter. This project, innovative in its anticipation, is also innovative in its intention to reduce its carbon footprint as much as possible. The houses of future climate refugees in Le Prêcheur will be built using biosourced materials. An initiative that could inspire other French municipalities.