Climate Sense

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daptation

and

itigation

trategies

In addition to the direct benefits for adaptation,

ecosystem management also provides significant social,

economic and environmental co-benefits. For example,

the restoration of mangrove systems provides shoreline

protection from storm surges, but also supports fisheries-

based livelihoods through increased productivity due to

the provision of habitat for fish, and provides mitigation

benefits through carbon sequestration.

Ecosystem-based adaptation is the strategy already

adopted by many local communities to adapt to the

impacts of climate change – often because there are no

other options than ecosystem management for natural

resource dependent communities. Due to its availabil-

ity, local practice and cost-effectiveness, this approach

to adaptation is often more accessible to the rural poor

than actions based on infrastructure and engineering.

Ecosystem-based adaptation can also support indigenous

peoples by harnessing traditional knowledge on natural

resource management as well as incorporating gender-

specific needs in relation to natural resources.

Ecosystem-based adaptation builds on existing lessons

learned from natural resource management and is deliv-

ered through adaptive management, supporting adaptive

management options by facilitating and accelerating learn-

ing, increasing social and economic resilience to climate

change. The approach is consistent with the precautionary

approach and can often contribute to climate change miti-

gation, lowering the risk of ‘mal-adaptation’.

An improvement of data and information availability on

the impacts of climate change at the appropriate scale, and

through appropriatemeans will help to realize the consider-

able potential to improve the management of ecosystems to

support the most vulnerable communities to better adapt to

the impacts of climate change now and in the future.

this vulnerability, and backed by a national water policy based on

the principles of Integrated Water Resource Management, efforts are

underway to implement ‘environmental flows’. This is an ecosystem-

based method for allocating water within the limits of availability,

based on negotiation among stakeholders of allocations to different

uses of water and to sustaining ecosystem services.

Implementation entails developing and coordinating decision-making

over water allocation at local to basin scales. Institutional strengthening is

thus key, as a means of enabling diverse stakeholders to participate in the

discovery of options, in learning and in joint action. Ideally, authorities

enlist representatives of competing water users – farmers, hydropower,

fishers, residents and ecosystems alike – to help decide how to allocate

water. Combining a local sense of who needs what, when andwhere with

scientific data on how much water is available now and might be avail-

able under climate change scenarios, the collaborators are piloting a new,

and flexible, approach to informed decision-making. They are learning to

allocate water within the limits of the river’s flow, including to ecosystems

in the basin that store water, regulate flows and support livelihoods.

Allocation of water to sustain natural infrastructure, such as wetlands

and estuary habitats, and adaptive governance provide capacity to deal

with uncertain future events. Better water governance and best practices

will reduce pressure on ecosystems and start to make communities and

the economy in the Pangani river basin less vulnerable to the impacts of

climate change.

The benefits of ecosystem-based adaptation

Ecosystem-based adaptation can provide a cost-effective means

to build adaptive capacity. For example, ecosystems can be

cost-effective natural buffers to coastal areas. In Indonesia, the

coastal protection functions of coral reefs have been estimated

at: USD829/km in areas of agricultural production; USD50,000

in areas of high population density (based on cost of replacing

housing and roads) and USD1 million in areas of tourism (cost

of maintaining sandy beaches).

In Tanzania, better water governance and practices makes communities less vulnerable to climate change

Image: IUCN Water Programme/Taco Anema