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PENNY URQUHARTINDEPENDENT CLIMATE ADAPTATION
PRESENTATION AT SADC-REEP / GIZ WORKSHOP, RHODES UNIVERSITY, 2 N D
JUNE 2014
Community-based adaptation, with reflections on risk and
vulnerability assessment
Overview
Understanding community-based adaptation (CBA)
Ecosystem-based adaptationCBA within an ecosystem-based approachRole of risk and vulnerability assessment
(RVA)Example: using VA to plan adaptation that
integrates CBA and EBASmall group workDiscussion
Community-based adaptation
Community initiated, and/or draws upon community knowledge or resources
Community-based adaptation (CBA) focuses on empowering and promoting the adaptive capacity of communities
Proactive problem-solving and forward-looking approach
Takes contexts, culture, knowledge, agency, and preferences of communities and their members as strengths
Need to distinguish between reactive coping, which can be erosive, and anticipatory adaptation
Progress with & approaches to CBA
Progress in Africa since 2007 in implementing and researching CBA Positive assessments of effectiveness in improving adaptive capacity IPCC found broad agreement that best way to support local-level
adaptation is by starting with existing local adaptive capacity Incorporating and building upon present coping strategies and
norms, including indigenous practices Examples: Community-based Adaptation in Africa (CBAA) project –
2008-2011, tested tools for CBA, http://pubs.iied.org/G02775.html ; Adaptation Learning Program 2010-ongoing, http://www.careclimatechange.org/adaptation-initiatives/alp ;
ALP hosting Learning event Sept 2014 on resilience and CBA in East and Southern African drylands, 10th June deadline for registration [co-hosted with CARE Ethiopia, CGIAR Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security Programme (CCAFS) and the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)]
Institutions and CBA
Key role for local institutions in enabling community resilience to climate change
E.g. role of local government in providing policy support to autonomous adaptation; in leveraging and managing adaptation finance
E.g. role of NGOs and CBOs in: catalysing agricultural adaptation or in building resilience through enhanced forest governance
and sustainable management of non-timber forest products institutions managing access to and tenure of land and
other natural resources, which are vital assets for the rural and peri-urban poor
Priorities for pro-poor adaptation
Local studies and adaptation planning have revealed the following priorities: social protection, social services and safety nets; Better, and integrated, water and land governance; action research to improve resilience of under-
researched food crops of poor people; enhanced water storage and harvesting; better post-harvest services; strengthened civil society and greater involvement in
planning; and more attention to urban and peri-urban areas heavily
affected by migration of poor people
Ecosystem-based adaptation
Using biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change
Adaptive management: A process of iteratively planning, implementing, and modifying strategies for managing resources in the face of uncertainty and change
EBA provides the opportunity for better interconnections between e.g. smallholder farming and wider landscapes
Scaling-up to prioritize ecosystem responses and EbA in plans and policy has been slow
Need a broad understanding that EbA is an integral component of the developmental agenda, rather than a competing ‘green’ agenda
Hard vs. soft path approaches
‘Soft path’, low-regrets adaptation approaches, such as using intact wetlands for flood risk management
Often the first line of defence for poor people in Africa
Contrasted with ‘hard path’ approaches like embankments and dams for flood control
Intact ecosystem services and biodiversity are recognized as critical components of successful human adaptation to climate change
May be more effective and incur lower costs than ‘hard’ or engineered solutions
Integrated approaches key for linking CBA & EBA
Integrated land and water management; integrated coastal zone management; integration of disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation; land use planning initiatives
For example, in South Africa, climate change design principles have been incorporated into existing systematic biodiversity planning to guide land use planning (Petersen and Holness, 2011)
Maputo’s specialized local government unit to implement climate change response, ecosystem-based adaptation and improved city wetlands
Participatory skills development in integrating community-based disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation into local development planning in Ethiopia
Conservation agriculture
Conservation agriculture provides a viable means for strengthening resilience in agroecosystems and livelihoods that also advance adaptation goals (high confidence)
Wide array of conservation agriculture practices increasingly practised: agroforestry and farmer-managed natural tree regeneration; conservation tillage, contouring and terracing, mulching
Strengthen resilience of the land base to extreme events Broaden sources of livelihoods Direct adaptation-mitigation co-benefits Constraints to broader adoption:
land tenure/usufruct stability access to peer-to-peer learning gender-oriented extension credit and markets identification of perverse policy incentives
Risk and vulnerability assessment
Vulnerability assessment is a key tool in adaptation planning
RVAs convey important, scientifically based information on how exposed and sensitive a population is to climate change, as well as its capacity to adapt to change
Participatory process involving community groups and policy makers, natural and social scientists
Guide to addressing vulnerability to climate changeCritical question is how they are used in decision making
Information drawn from recent Experts’ Meeting on Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Utility and Uptake, hosted by the African and Latin American Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) Program
Experience with VA
Local projects often use participatory vulnerability assessment or screening to design adaptation strategies
VA at the local government level is often lacking, or not participatory at the national level
Highest exposure and risk do not always correlate with vulnerable ecosystems, socially marginalized groups, and areas with at-risk infrastructure, but may also lie in unexpected segments of the population
Examples of tools for VA and risk screening
Community Vulnerability Assessment Tool (CVAT) – NOAAClimate vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA) of
CARE International HEKS community level climate proofing tool IUCN Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation
and Livelihoods www.cristaltool.org/ “Community-based RiskScreening Tool – Adaptation andLivelihoods.” Food Security tool; Forests tool
Tools assist with avoiding maladaptation: e.g. a food security project may encourage dependence on a particular agricultural technology or crop species that may be negatively affected by climate change, thereby increasing local vulnerability in the longer term
CRiSTAL is organized according to three phases, which build on each other:
VA helps to differentiate and target actions
Effective adaptation responses necessitate differentiated and targeted actions from the local to national levels, given the differentiated social impacts based on gender, age, disability, ethnicity, geographical location, livelihood, and migrant status
Call for additional attention to equity and social justice aspects in adaptation efforts in Africa
Important to understand the differential distribution of adaptation benefits and costs
How do RVAs work?
Risk from a changing climate comes from vulnerability (lack of preparedness) and exposure (people or assets in harm’s way) overlapping with hazards (triggering climate events or trends)
Identify current and likely future impacts of climate change, the sensitivities of people and ecosystems to the impacts, and the existing adaptive capacity (capacities that can support adjustment to impacts)
Different methods used e.g. analysis of historic and modeled climate data, livelihood surveys, crop models, ecosystem studies
For example, vulnerability of national economies to climate change impacts on fisheries can be linked to exposure to the physical effects of climate change, the sensitivity of the country to impacts on fisheries, and adaptive capacity within the country
Most vulnerable countries in Africa were Angola, DR Congo, Mauritania and Senegal, due to the importance of fisheries to the poor and the close link between climate variability and fisheries production Allison et al. (2009)
VA and EbA in Panchase, Nepal – Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET)
Assessing Vulnerability and Planning EbA in Panchase, Nepal
Ecosystem-based Adaptation Approach facilitated by ISET-Nepal Panchase is a prime ecosystem in Nepal with rich biological, cultural, and religious
diversities Vulnerability impact assessment (VIA) to establish knowledge base for adaptation
planning and enable sustained resilience building measures for the socio-ecosystem Delineated the ecosystems into core, buffer, and tertiary subsystems Using socio-economic, ecological, bio-physical, and institutional indicators,
systematically mapped out resources, hazards, exposure, sensitivities, capacities Estimated ward and watershed level vulnerability impacts describing historical and
predicted climate scenarios, trends and projections Preliminary VIA results suggested moderate to high exposure and sensitivity of the
ecosystem services that are likely to increase in future Ward-level vulnerability maps indicated aggravated vulnerability where there are
steep slopes, fragile features, predominantly south facing slopes, and rampant degradation
Ecosystem and local communities face moderate to high climatic and non-climatic impacts alike: drying up of water sources, increasing landslides and flash flood events, degrading biodiversity, and declining agriculture and eco-system productivity
Based on multi-stakeholder adaptation planning, EbA options were prioritised: water management, climate smart agriculture, climate sensitive road construction,
clean and affordable energy, targeted biodiversity conservation, and integrated watershed management
Holistic and flexible EbA strategy reflecting the changes and challenges of a complex ecosystem
Small group work: adaptation planning using VA
Based on one of the TFCAs, discuss the process to carry out a vulnerability assessment, as a step to plan adaptation options, using the following guiding questions:
1. What would the key steps be?2. What stakeholders would you involve, and how?3. How would you go about exploring vulnerability at:
community level? ecosystem vulnerability?
4. What challenges can you foresee, and how could you overcome them?
