A. PROJECT SUMMARY
Project Title: Developing tools for integrating Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) into Biodiversity/Ecosystem management with focus on the coastal and marine areas in South Asia
Time frame: December 2011-April 2012
Location: South Asia sub region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,
Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
Partner Agency: UNDP India Country Office
1.
Background
Well functioning ecosystems are central to the prevention and mitigation of many hazards, including flood regulation, coastal protection and stabilizing steep slopes.
Healthy ecosystems increase the resilience of vulnerable people to withstand, cope with, and recover from disasters. Furthermore, ecosystems provide many additional livelihood benefits, such as food, firewood, clean water, fibres, and medicine that contribute to the overall resilience of communities to disasters and climate change.
The inter- linkages between eco- systems management and disaster risk reduction can be identified in the opportunities for exposure reduction, eco-system protection, reduction of vulnerability in coordination with socio-ecological systems and for increased resilience of the systems. Ecosystem management can therefore provide a cost-effective contribution to solutions for protection from hazard events, in addition to the range of other benefits that ecosystems provide for livelihood security. The growing evidence base is demonstrating the importance of reducing vulnerability and exposure of populations to hazard events through integrated environmental management.
The recent World Bank/UN report, “Natural Hazards, unnatural disasters: Effective prevention through an economic lens” has also emphasized the role of well conserved ecosystems like natural forests and mangroves in buffering impact of natural hazards like floods and landslides and cyclones on the lives and livelihoods of local communities.
There are numerous opportunities to use ecosystem and bio-diversity management in buffering the impact of extreme weather event and climate response strategies by national and local governments through incorporating their roles into disaster risk reduction and climate change strategies and actions.
Coastal and marine areas face ‘high’ degree of threat from climate change. Climate change impacts are expected to have significant impacts on coastal and marine region.
These may range from escalated exposure to external shocks and unusual (often unpredictable) and frequent extreme weather events, sea level rise and associated issues of coastal erosion, increased ‘storm surges’ and inundation of low lying areas, salt water intrusion, diminished fresh water supply, coral bleaching and breaching, deterioration in ecosystem functions, reduced opportunities for ecosystem based livelihoods, excessive

dependence on external resource supply, unpredictable crop yields, uncertainty over the functioning of other sensitive sectors like tourism and fisheries, increased malnutrition and heat stress, etc. Once it starts resulting in “disruption” of life supporting systems, the costs for building defense mechanisms against it will be prohibitively high. For instance, upgrading coastal systems and defenses against storms and storm surges would require substantial capital investment and ongoing maintenance. At higher levels of warming (as various models predict) and increased rates of sea level rise, the risks will become increasingly serious.
In view of this, it is important to integrate the concerns of climate change and disaster risk reduction into ecosystem management considerations.
2.
Objectives
The proposed project will have the following objectives: a.
Develop an understanding on the integration of DRR and CCA into ecosystem/bio diversity management of coastal and marine areas (including in Protected Areas) based on the available research and practice in the South Asia region. b.
Develop a Tool kit to assist incorporating DRR and CCA into biodiversity/ecosystem management of coastal and marine areas with specific focus on coastal ecosystems in South Asia
3.
Implementation strategy
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Build on the ongoing initiatives and programmes on addressing impacts of climate change on vulnerable ecosystems particularly coastal and marine areas.

Develop specific understanding on the DRR- CCA linkages in a selected ecosystem such as coastal eco-system.

Develop tools to assist the managers and practitioners to incorporate DRR-CCA integration into Biodiversity/Ecosystem management planning particularly coastal and marine areas.

Disseminate the tools through the mechanisms leading upto the CBD CoP 11
Agency justification:
UNDP is the lead agency working in the field of biodiversity management, working closely with a range of partners. UNDP has actively supported the Convention on
Biodiversity (CBD), and supporting the Government of India towards CBD CoP 11, engaging countries in the South Asia region in consultations. The themes for consultation for COP 11 include biodiversity and climate change.
Target population:
Planners, managers and practitioners engaged in the areas of Environment, Natural
Resource Management, Protected Area management, Ecosystems and Biodiversity conservation, relevant projects and programmes in South Asia region.