Natural Resources sustainability Livelihood and Climate Moderation

Abstract

From the Co-Chairs of the Task Force on Climate Change, Vulnerable Communities and Adaptation While government representatives negotiate international policy frameworks to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and researchers continue to debate the science and impacts of climate change, climate-induced changes to physical and biological systems are already being detected. Retreating glaciers, longer growing seasons, shifting eco-zones and thawing permafrost have all been observed in different regions around the world. Compounded by human pressures and modifications to the environment, these changes threaten to further entrench global inequities, as those with the least stand to suffer the most. There is a pressing need to develop response measures that will address current development disparities and protect vulnerable communities from the longer-term impacts of climate change. In 2001, IUCN – The World Conservation Union, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) joined forces to launch an international research and policy initiative on Climate Change, Vulnerable Communities and Adaptation. Guided by a multi disciplinary Task Force, this initiative represents a confluence of four distinct, yet decidedly relevant, communities working on vulnerability reduction in the face of climate change. These experts—from the fields of disaster risk reduction, climate change, conservation and poverty reduction—first met following the release of the IPCC Working Group II’s latest assessment of climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and the conclusion of the Marrakech Accords to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In view of the expanding body of knowledge on climate change impacts and new funding opportunities for climate change adaptation, the Task Force set in motion a collaborative effort to inform and influence how the world undertakes and invests in climate change adaptation. The Task Force believes that adaptation must be rooted in reducing vulnerabilities, and some of the greatest opportunities for this lie in ecosystem management and restoration activities. By protecting and enhancing natural services, we help to secure the livelihoods of the world’s most vulnerable communities and improve their capacity to deal with the impacts of climate change. How can activities such as watershed restoration in India, the rehabilitation of mangrove plantations in Vietnam, or agroecological practices in Honduras enable local communities to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate? How do they address current gaps in adaptation policies? How do we integrate these activities into national climate change adaptation strategies? This publication provides a basis for answering these and other questions by articulating the conceptual foundations of the IUCN/IISD/SEI project and the issues that will be addressed through the work program. We hope this paper is useful in providing a framework for those researchers, policy-makers and community groups seeking to take action on adaptation. The partnering institutions and Task Force members look forward to working with all stakeholders in finding innovative and sustainable ways of responding to our changing global climate.