Climate Prep

A recent UN policy brief discusses why water-related climate change adaptation is critical for achieving sustainable development around the world. As significant water shortages already exist, water is the medium through which climate impacts are going to be felt most immediately and most severely by many people. “Adaptation to climate change is urgent. Water plays a pivotal role in it, but the political world has yet to recognize this notion.” Among other things, this report recommends implementing “no regrets” strategies since they have positive development outcomes that are resilient to climate change.

UNWater.org: “Climate Change Adaptation: The Pivotal Role of Water”

Junquillal students monitor temperature differences among sand samples © WWF - LAC

Junquillal Beach in the north Pacific of Costa Rica is a representative example of many places in Latin American and the Caribbean where wildlife and communities are already feeling the impacts of climate change. In 2005, with the support of the community, WWF started the project “Conservation of Pacific Leatherbacks” (in Spanish, Conservación – Baulas del Pacífico (CBP)). The CBP Program includes the monitoring and protection of sea turtle nesting sites, community education and training programs, and the development of flooding maps for the Junquillal area.

In this three part series, Gabriel Francia, Ana Fonseca, and Valerie Guthrie from WWF’s Latin American and Caribbean Program will discuss their efforts to work with communities and integrate the latest climate science and mapping technologies as part of a multi-faceted sea turtle and coastal adaptation project in Costa Rica. A previous entry on ClimatePrep featured a video from Junquillal.

In this entry, Gabriel Francia discusses the community’s efforts to adapt – both for the turtles and themselves.

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The Lunana area of Northern Bhutan is surrounded by a stunning array of pristine mountains and the glaciers that move slowly through them. Amidst this serene beauty, however, is a growing danger that has the potential to be cataclysmic. As the ancient glaciers melt, their runoff collects and eventually forms pools of water known as glacial lakes. These pristine pools normally pose no danger to the surrounding villages, agricultural fields, temples, and schools. Recently, however, climate change has caused some of these lakes to grow substantially in size, posing a massive risk to the surrounding community.   

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by Antonio Oviedo, WWF-Brazil

This story is part of a series on adaptation in the Brazilian Amazon.

Figure 1. Location of the community of Igarape do Costa © WWF-Brazil

Located in the lower Amazon floodplain of Brazil, the Santarém region harbors important fisheries that many people depend on for employment, food security, government tax revenues, and items to export to both domestic and foreign markets. Climate change is creating difficulties, but not without hope and new opportunities as well.

These fisheries and the services that they provide are known to be sensitive to shifts in the climate. Precipitation patterns are shifting in the Santarém region, with the amount of annual rainfall generally decreasing and floods and droughts becoming more common. Livelihoods for most people around these lakes combine farming and fishing, both of which will be negatively affected by a reduction in rainfall. Less rain will have an especially big impact on the local economy through the quantity of fish that are locally harvested. If regional climate forecasts are accurate, rural livelihoods in lakeshore regions will become increasingly precarious over time.

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In early November of 2009, WWF convened the 4th annual Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Symposium. This year’s event, titled “Securing Water for Nature and People in a Changing Climate,” provided a state-of-the-science review of climate impacts on freshwater systems, challenges to freshwater ecosystem conservation, the role of adaptation in water management, and provided a platform for the development of an adaptation based “conservation agenda.”

Jim Jarvie of Mercy Corps spoke powerfully about how climate change is exacerbating humanitarian crises in poor, urban centers and how current trends are necessitating a new partnership between humanitarian and environmental organizations. Watch him deliver some of his key messages here:

by Jonathan Cook, WWF-US

Community members, Fiji © Joanna Ellison

For the past six months, I have managed a WWF project, supported by the Global Environment Facility and United Nations Environment Program, that tries to address the significant adaptation challenges facing a fascinating but often neglected ecosystem: mangrove forests. Mangroves – the guardians of tropical coastlines – are among the many ecosystems that will be lost or negatively affected by climate change unless adaptive management strategies are developed for them. Many human livelihoods will be affected as well.

Mangroves occur most extensively on low-energy, sedimentary shorelines of the tropics, in intertidal areas such as deltas and estuaries. Their unusual aerial roots are an adaptation to their salty environment. These trees act as nurseries for fish and invertebrate species that later live on coral reefs and in the pelagic zone, and they control aspects of water chemistry in coastal zones.