Resources

The Tank Cascade Systems (TCSs) of Sri Lanka, over 2000 years old, are vital for life, livelihood, and nature in the country’s arid regions, covering 22.5% of the land. The GEF-funded Healthy Landscapes Project, in collaboration with UNEP and other partners, has successfully restored these systems, enhancing biodiversity and providing alternative livelihoods such as fishing, beekeeping, and ecotourism. This project has also reduced human-wildlife conflicts and improved farmers’ incomes through initiatives like seed banks.

Welcome to Aqua Read, your source of environmental news and updates relating to UNEP-GEF International Waters projects and programmes worldwide. We've got you covered from transboundary water governance and sustainable blue economy to coastal and marine ecosystems, water security, river basins and open oceans. Stay informed with our impactful solutions, compelling project stories, and significant events of this quarter.

Welcome to Aqua Read, your source of environmental news and updates relating to UNEP-GEF International Waters projects and programmes worldwide. We've got you covered from transboundary water governance and sustainable blue economy to coastal and marine ecosystems, water security, river basins and open oceans. Stay informed with our impactful solutions, compelling project stories, and significant events of this quarter.

Welcome to Aqua Read, your source of environmental news and updates relating to UNEP-GEF International Waters projects and programmes around the world. From transboundary water governance and sustainable blue economy to coastal and marine ecosystems, water security, river basins and open oceans, we've got you covered. Stay informed with our impactful solutions, compelling project stories, and significant events of this quarter.

In this State of Finance for Nature (SFN) publication, developed as an addendum to the 2022 SFN report, UNEP and the Penn Institute for Urban Research seek to take stock of urban Nature-based NbS investments, outline gaps and opportunities for NbS financing in cities, and map out best practices from cities around the world.

As engines of the global economy and centers of creativity and innovation, cities have always possessed enormous potential for change. They play a critical role, not only in championing climate action and reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement, but in building back better from the aftermath of COVID-19 and mobilizing resources to protect the lives and livelihoods of the world’s 4.4 billion urban residents.

Welcome to Aqua Read, your source of environmental news and updates relating to UNEP-GEF International Waters projects and programmes around the world. From transboundary water governance and sustainable blue economy to coastal and marine ecosystems, water security, river basins and open oceans, we've got you covered. Stay informed with our impactful solutions, compelling project stories, and significant events of this quarter.

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.

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.

Welcome to Aqua Read, your source of environmental news and updates relating to UNEP-GEF International Waters projects and programmes around the world. From transboundary water governance and sustainable blue economy to coastal and marine ecosystems, water security, river basins and open oceans, we've got you covered. Stay informed with our impactful solutions, compelling project stories, and significant events of this quarter.

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.

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 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.

The UNEP GEF Chemicals and Waste Portfolio has implemented multiple projects since 2003 that have helped countries that are party to the Stockholm Convention to establish control over their DDT use and stocks. Find out more about DDT and our projects through our Chemicals Brief.

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.