Resources

The Ecosystem-based Adaptation Briefing Note Series aims to foster a common understanding of key concepts, issues and considerations to help design, plan and implement successful ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) initiatives. It highlights issues, trade-offs and tensions that need to be addressed to enable EbA to form part of – and contribute to – the wider landscape of climate change adaptation in the context of sustainable development.

This briefing note explores the strategy of EbA in agricultural systems. It includes two case studies from Cambodia and Sudan.

The Ecosystem-based Adaptation Briefing Note Series aims to foster a common understanding of key concepts, issues and considerations to help design, plan and implement successful ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) initiatives. It highlights issues, trade-offs and tensions that need to be addressed to enable EbA to form part of – and contribute to – the wider landscape of climate change adaptation in the context of sustainable development.

This briefing note explores the strategy of EbA on coasts. It includes two case studies from Tanzania and Madagascar.

The Ecosystem-based Adaptation Briefing Note Series aims to foster a common understanding of key concepts, issues and considerations to help design, plan and implement successful ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) initiatives. It highlights issues, trade-offs and tensions that need to be addressed to enable EbA to form part of – and contribute to – the wider landscape of climate change adaptation in the context of sustainable development.

This briefing note explores the strategy of EbA in forest ecosystems. It includes two case studies from Mexico and the Gambia.

The Ecosystem-based Adaptation Briefing Note Series aims to foster a common understanding of key concepts, issues and considerations to help design, plan and implement successful ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) initiatives. It highlights issues, trade-offs and tensions that need to be addressed to enable EbA to form part of – and contribute to – the wider landscape of climate change adaptation in the context of sustainable development.

The dryland forests of the Barind Tract and the wetlands of the Haor Area of Bangladesh provide a range of valuable ecosystem services to local communities that derive most of their income from agriculture and fishing. Climate change impacts, including droughts and floods, are harming communities that live in Haor and the Barind Tract, damaging agricultural productivity and fisheries.

The Mediterranean Sea region is suffering from the impacts of climate change on its coasts, worsened by rapid urbanization and high rates of deforestation and ecosystem degradation. A project is strengthening the capacities of countries in the region to implement ecosystem-based adaptation, and to access international climate financing with a view to influencing wider development processes.

In 2012, the Government of Tanzania secured funding from the Adaptation Fund and the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Country Fund to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities in coastal areas. The country is facing the impacts of climate change on the coasts through rain-induced flooding and sea-level rise.

In 2012, the Government of Madagascar secured funding from the Adaptation Fund to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities. Madagascar’s rice sector is experiencing climate change through alterations in rainfall patterns and a rise of temperatures, leading to a reduction of water availability and decreasing yields.

In 2011, the Government of Lesotho secured funding from the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Country Fund to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities.

A central approach of the project was to build the resilience of vulnerable communities by strengthening Lesotho’s climate information and forecasting systems, which contribute to communities’ adaptive capacity regarding preparation for extreme weather events.

This guidance note supports the development of strategies, policies, and projects that seek to increase resilience by linking climate change adaptation, peacebuilding, and sustainable livelihoods.

- A brief introduction outlines the need for integrated approaches to address climate-fragility risks. - Step 1 describes a process to identify climate-fragility risks and to assess the potential for resilience to these risks. - Step 2 describes how to translate these assessments into policies and action.

This M&E note supports the monitoring and evaluation of strategies, policies and projects that seek to increase resilience by linking climate change adaptation, peacebuilding, and sustainable livelihoods. It accompanies the guidance note which is focused on policy, strategy and project development. Chapter 1 explains the importance of M&E and lays out the basic principles of conflict- and genders-sensitive M&E. Chapter 2 explains how to measure results and impacts putting a special focus on climate change adaptation and peacebuilding results.

The Kingdom of Lesotho is a landlocked territory in southern Africa with a population over 2 million.

This project is reducing the vulnerability of agriculture, water systems, and livelihoods to climate change impacts across the country by establishing new Early Warning Services (EWS) and scaling up existing EWS. EWS is an adaptive measure for climate change, using integrated communication systems to help communities prepare for hazardous climaterelated events.

The factsheet gives an overview of an Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) project which is implemented by UNEP, Building Climate Resilience of Urban Systems through Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) In the Asia-Pacific Region ‘Urban EbA Asia’. This project is building the climate resilience of poor communities in 5 cities using ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) – a strategy of protecting or restoring ecosystems to reduce the negative impacts of climate change.

This practical guide demonstrates how buildings and community spaces can be constructed to increase their resilience to climate change, especially in developing countries where structures are largely self-built. The publication provides an overview of the fundamental types of interventions at the building scale, including the use of nature-based solutions. 

The EbA South project has been identified as a flagship initiative for South-South cooperation on climate change. A key part of the project was to share lessons in Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) across 3 different ecosystems - coastal habitats in Seychelles, dry deserts in Mauritania, and mountainous forests in Nepal. A peer-reviewed paper explores the project’s lessons here.  

A UNEP-supported project is helping to increase Djibouti's resilience to climate change. The main approaches are to: build infrastructure to protect communities from flash floods and droughts; use Ecosystem-based Adaptation to protect crops; train communities to adopt climate-resilient livelihoods; and improve institutional capacity for adaptation.

In the last 20 years, extreme weather such as flooding, cyclones and heatwaves have taken a heavy toll on the nation’s coastal communities, severely affecting access to basic necessities. The government of Madagascar is working to build the resilience of coastal communities in 4 regions: Boeny; Menabe; Atsinanana, and Vatovavy-Fitovinany.

A GEF-funded project is seeking to help climate-vulnerable coastal communities by using ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) – a type of ‘nature-based solution’ that uses ecosystem services to reduce the negative impacts of climate change. The main approaches of the project are: Establishing an early warning climate forecasting system (EWS) to help people prepare in advance for extreme weather; restoring wetlands and mangroves to provide flood defences; promoting climate-resilient land management techniques to mitigate the impacts of drought on livelihoods; and integrating adaptation into natio

The UN Environment Programme is helping the government of Rwanda to build the climate resilience of people living near the Gishwati area. The local population depends hugely on rain-fed crops, but the region is under immense pressure from climate change and erratic rainfall.

The project is building climate adaptation near 5 community protected forests across the country. These areas are extremely vulnerable to climate change due to increasingly erratic rainfall, where dry seasons are getting drier and wet seasons are wetter, causing devastating floods and droughts. The main approaches of the project are to reforest natural land to regulate soil waterflow; create patrols to halt illegal logging; establish ‘home-gardens’ with irrigation to diversify sources of food and income; and develop early warning climate systems to inform farmers’ planting decisions.

The project’s 1st phase built climate forecasting systems across Gambia to help communities prepare in advance for extreme weather. The project provided equipment and training for forecasting offices and TV/radio networks. The project’s 2nd phase aims to: Support the transition of Gambia’s National Meteorological Services (NMS) towards becoming financially sustainable; upgrade the early warning systems; and provide a critical mass of skilled human resources to operate the system. UNEP and UNDP are the implementing entities for this project.