ClimatePrep

Stacy Vynne, The Resource Innovation Group

Aerial view of Portland, © DubbaG (via Wikipedia)

The question of how to design and implement effective adaptation measures is one that I think most adaptation practitioners are still struggling with, and will continue to struggle with, for many years to come. With hundreds of adaptation initiatives underway around the world, we are beginning to develop a set of best practices that will be valuable as we move forward with further project implementation. What many of us are finding is that adaptation isn’t a one size fits all- effective adaptation will likely vary by region and expected climate impacts as well as be driven by the local economy, demographics, and values. Where I work, The Resource Innovation Group, we are attempting to provide some insight into this challenging question of “effective” adaptation by experimenting with different approaches. We are currently embarking on a project aims to engage the greater region in collaboration around climate change adaptation through the Willamette Valley Resilience Compact.

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Eliot Levine, Jonathan Cook, Sarah Freeman (WWF-US)

Click the image to download a copy of Shifting Course.

“Adaptation is not a specialist issue — it’s an issue of how decisions are made, and how to utilize the information provided by specialists in the process of decision making”.

– Workshop Participant, 2011 World Water Week

Water management institutions are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that water is where we want it, when we want it, and how we want it (e.g. potable). This is an unquestionably difficult challenge considering that roughly 7 billion people and a multitude of diverse ecosystems rely on those institutions. However, while the problems associated with an ever increasing demand for freshwater resources are difficult, institutions must also become better equipped to deal with an increasing amount of uncertainty as a result of climate change.

The quality and quantity of water, as well as the timing of when water is available to us, are largely influenced by climate. As such, institutions that manage water are essentially responsible for managing the natural variations in climate. Luckily, as archeological records illustrate, humans have been managing water resources for centuries. Over time, we have become relatively good at this—and we have a number of tools that can help us to do it effectively.

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By: Stacy Vynne, the Resource Innovation Group (TRIG)

United States U.S. © Dept. of Commerce/National Climactic Data Center/NOAA Satellite and Information Service

For the past four years, the organization that I work for, The Resource Innovation Group (TRIG), has been running a series of Climate Futures Forums in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Forums are essentially based on the principles of Community Based Adaptation (CBA) and we have found them to be an effective means for bridging the gap between climate scientists and local decision-makers. In addition, the Forums demonstrate the value of bringing local experts into the community adaptation planning process: these “experts” are individuals that may not necessarily have academic training on climate change or adaptation, but who have observational and experiential expertise. They live, work and play in these communities and know them well. While the Forums have proven to be extremely instrumental for adaptation planning in the Pacific Northwest, I hope that by sharing the process and lessons learned here, other organizations may be interested in replication.

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By Devyani Parameshwar, Intellcap

A nighttime view of Shanghai city, China. © Brent Stirton / Getty Images / WWF-UK

While mitigating the future rise in global temperature has received much attention worldwide, support to help those vulnerable adapt to the inevitable impacts of rising temperature has been limited. The estimated annual cost of adaptation is USD 100 bn, and bilateral and multilateral funding pledges form just a fraction of this amount. Given that donor and government funding is neither sufficient nor sustainable, there is an urgent need to engage private capital and enterprise in climate change adaptation.

Asian cities are expected to account for more than 60% of global population growth in the next 30 years. The bulk of this growth is expected to come from tier two and three cities and towns that are least equipped with the infrastructure to cope with increased population pressure. As a result, a large number of poor people in urban areas will be highly vulnerable to the changing climate; many already are. Efforts to build resilient cities are thus critical now, and through the development and provision of resilient and inclusive products and services the private sector can participate.

In order to explore business models with the potential to build the resilience of the urban poor, Intellecap, an inclusive business advisory firm, is partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN). The initial report based on a study of vulnerabilities and opportunities in four Asian cities identified nine key sectors with clear business opportunities in the area of climate adaptation and resilience: micro-insurance, affordable healthcare, waste management and sanitation, water management, affordable housing, off-grid renewable energy, microfinance, information and communication technology and livelihood promotion.

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By Jessica Frank, Twin

Member of the Gumutindo Cooperative © Jessica Frank

Twin works in partnership with over 50 farmer organisations world wide, facilitating market access and helping to build business and organisational capacity. We are currently developing our strategy to support smallholder producer organisations to effectively plan adaptation interventions with their members; an initial project with Gumutindo Coffee Cooperative Enterprises in Uganda is already underway.

Gumutindo: Climate Change is Here Now.

Members of Gumutindo Cooperative live in the upland valleys of Mount Elgon, where they produce high quality organic and Fairtrade certified coffee. Climate change presents a serious threat to smallholder coffee farmers since coffee trees are highly vulnerable to changes in their environment and only thrive within a narrow temperature range and under the right rainfall conditions. In Uganda, coffee farmers are extremely worried about the future since they are already suffering from increased climate variability including longer drought periods and heavier rainfall leading to poor quality cherry, low yields and severe erosion. In March 2010 following extremely heavy rains, a devastating landslide killed over 300 people that live and farm on Mount Elgon. This season farmers suffered from an unusually long drought season and extremely late rains, threatening food security.

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By Dr. Nathaniel Seavy and Tom Gardali, PRBO Conservation Science

© WWF-Canon / Simon Rawles

PRBO Conservation Science is a non-profit organization with a mission to conserve birds, other wildlife, and ecosystems through innovative scientific research and outreach.  PRBO’s highest priority is to develop and promote conservation practices that address the challenges of rapid environmental change. Since the early 1980’s, we have focused a large amount of our work on riparian areas of California because relative to other habitats, these areas are disproportionately important for migratory birds, but also disproportionately degraded.

After initially working to describe the bird use of existing riparian areas, we quickly began working with restoration practitioners to document the recolonization of restored riparian areas by migratory birds. Subsequently, we have helped develop and test new restoration strategies that can generate higher quality habitat in the shortest amount of time. As a result, our work has expanded to include collaborations with hydrologists, geomorphologists, landscape ecologists, and vegetation ecologists.

Climate change means that the field of restoration is no longer simply concerned with regenerating what has been lost, but also with preparing for what is to come.  We are now frequently asked if restoration can remain relevant in a future with warmer temperatures, more frequent extreme events, and novel species assemblages. As a result, it has become impossible for us not to ask, “What will climate change mean for riparian restoration?”  We addressed this question by assembling a team of partners who have been involved with restoration projects from several different perspectives (hydrology, vegetation science, and wildlife management) and organizations (The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, University of California Davis, Bureau of Land Management, River Partners, and Audubon California).

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By Shaun Martin, WWF-US

Oak Street Beach in Chicago, IL © Jrissman via Wikipedia

Among US cities, it appears that Chicago is among the most advanced on introducing climate adaptive measures into their planning, according to this New York Times article. If current emissions trends continue, by 2070 Chicago could have a climate that resembles that of today’s southern states of Alabama and Louisiana, with 35 percent more precipitation in the winter and spring and 20 percent less in the summer and autumn.  Among potential impacts cited in the article include 1200 heat-related deaths per year, deterioration of infrastructure, flooding, and termite infestation. (Termites are currently not able to survive Chicago’s cold winters.)

The article outlines a number of interesting adaptation measures the city is taking to prepare for a warmer and wetter future. The one I find most interesting will make many conservationists squeamish – the decision to stop planting common tree species, like ash and Norway maple, in favor of trees found much further south, like swamp white oak and bald cypress.  In the adaptation training workshops we have conducted many participants have reacted negatively to the idea of proactively introducing species that will be resilient to a future climate, preferring traditional conservation measures that restore ecosystems to previous conditions. I suspect that in the future more of us will learn to accept the inevitable and begin following Chicago’s lead.

By Eric Perez, Queensland Seafood Industry Association

Map of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Like all citizens of the world, Australians will face the impacts of climate change. In an iconic area such as the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) the impacts will be felt on both an ecosystem and a human level.

There is near saturation in the print and television media about the primary drivers of climate change. Add to this a robust political debate on how Australia as a nation should address the problem, and then superimpose global activity or inactivity and you can see why the climate change debate ‘noise’ overshadows the actual impacts of climate change on people and businesses, and more specifically the people I represent, commercial ‘wild catch’ fishers.

The Queensland Seafood Industry Association (QSIA) and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) have recognised this and are working together to ensure industry can better prepare itself for the impacts of climate change. The GBRMPA and QSIA have formed a climate change and fisheries partnership to confront the climate change challenge and work with fisheries managers to ensure a sustainable future for the GBR.

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By Regie Junio, Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Philippines      

Children fetching drinking water © Regina Junio

Three years ago, I had the opportunity to work with a non-government organization in implementing development projects funded by official development assistance. One of the main objectives of the project was to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) through a participatory coastal resources management approach (PCRM) in the provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines.  In doing so, we hoped to provide an enabling environment for good governance, peace, and development. We partnered with local government units, including the barangays (the smallest administrative division in the Philippines), municipalities and provinces, as well as peoples’ organizations and other community stakeholders.    

The process of implementing the project moved these stakeholders from simply being participants in the CRM project to being CRM practitioners. In the beginning, the communities found managing their MPAs truly burdensome, as they needed to dedicate some of their time to helping patrol the MPAs on top of finding alternative areas to fish. But as they persevered with the project they began to observe a decrease in illegal fishing activities, an increased awareness among local folks on the significance of MPAs, and eventually a witnessed increase in their fish catch.    

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@ R.Isotti, A.Cambone - Homo Ambiens / WWF-Canon

Last August I found myself in a dark room at a conference facility outside of Delhi, listening to what was meant to be an adaptation talk.  The speaker was supposed to be walking us through adaptation options for conservationists and natural resource planners in India, but with only 15 minutes left in his hour-long talk, I had yet to even hear the word “adaptation” mentioned. Which is maybe why one nervous looking individual crept up to an open chair next to me, sat down, and started drawing a map on the back of his workshop agenda. When he was done he tapped me on the shoulder and (in a whisper) started to tell me the story of the fishery he had just finished labeling on the map. The story he told was definitely troubling. This particular fishery that his work has been focusing on, and that thousands of people rely upon was seeing a significant decline in productivity. Looking up from the map he said “I believe this is because of climate change… so what should we do?” Smiling, he handed me his pen and awaited my answer. My response was unsurprisingly unsatisfying- “Have you and your colleagues though about doing a vulnerability assessment?” I asked.

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