Community-Based Adaptation

It is increasingly recognized that small communities are likely to be the most severely affected by climate change impacts and yet are least equipped to cope and adapt. In response to this, UNDP is supporting community-based projects that seek to enhance the resiliency of communities, and/or the ecosystems on which they rely, to climate change impacts. It will essentially create small-scale/policy laboratories and generate knowledge about how to achieve adaptation at the local level. 

For example, ten participating countries (Bangladesh, Bolivia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Samoa, and Vietnam) each developed, planned and implemented a portfolio of community-level adaptation projects.

Projects

Safeguarding rural communities and their physical assets from climate-induced disasters in Timor-Leste

In Timor-Leste, increasing climatic variability and unpredictability – particularly related to rainfall and extreme weather events – present a significant risk to the lives and livelihoods of rural people.

Climate-induced hazards, such as floods, landslides and drought, frequently impact families’ lives and livelihoods while also damaging critical rural infrastructure including water supply and drainage, embankments, roads and bridges. These damages leave rural populations without basic services and often in full isolation. 

Supporting Climate Resilience and Transformational Change in the Agriculture Sector in Bhutan

Given its geographic location and mountainous terrain, Bhutan is particularly vulnerable to changes in climate.
 
With the goal enhancing the resilience of smallholder farms, in particular to shifting rainfall patterns and frequent extreme weather events, this project, led by Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Commission, focuses on three complementary outcomes:
 
• Promoting resilient agricultural practices in the face of changing climate patterns

Addressing Climate Change Risks on Water Resources and Food Security in the Dry Zone of Myanmar

This project seeks to reduce the vulnerability of farmers in Myanmar’s Dry Zone to increasing drought and rainfall variability, as well as enhance their capacity to plan for and respond to future climate change impacts on food security.

Focused on five of the most vulnerable townships of Myanmar’s Dry Zone, the four-year project (2015-2019) will reduce the risks and effects from recurring droughts, floods and erosion through an integrated water management, crop and livestock adaptation programme.

Enhancing Adaptive Capacities of Coastal Communities, especially Women, to Cope with Climate Change-Induced Salinity in Bangladesh

Upscaling Community-Based Adaptation in Ethiopia

The "Upscaling Community-Based Adaptation in Ethiopia" project will work to empower communities to plan and implement adaptation interventions in a deliberate and proactive manner, reducing reliance on the Government of Ethiopia to provide already scarce resources for climate change adaptation. The five-year project will benefit from a US$8.8 million grant from the Global Environment Facility Least Developed Country Fund.

Community-Based Adaptation: Viet Nam

Viet Nam, with an extensive coastline and high baseline vulnerability to cyclones, is highly threatened by climate change.  Threats include:

Community-Based Adaptation: Bangladesh

Densely populated, coastal, and low-lying, Bangladesh faces serious climate change risks, including:

• Sea-level rise
• Intensification of cyclones
• Increased river flooding
• Salinization of agricultural land
• Changing rainfall patterns, with increasingly intense rainfall during the monsoon season

Community-Based Adaptation: Morocco

Like much of the Maghreb, Morocco faces current water scarcity, which is likely to intensify with climate change.  Climate change projections include:

Community-Based Adaptation Project

It is increasingly recognized that small communities are likely to be the most severely affected by climate change impacts and yet are least equipped to cope and adapt. This pilot project is designed to implement community-based projects that seek to enhance the resiliency of communities, and/or the ecosystems on which they rely, to climate change impacts.

Community-Based Adaptation: Bolivia

Climate change impacts in Bolivia will vary with the country's diverse topography and ecology, but will include the following:

Community-Based Adaptation: Namibia

Namibia faces significant climate change risks, including increased aridity and heightened climate variability.  Projected impacts include:

  • Increased production risks to smallholder agriculture and pastoralism
  • Increasing erosion risks
  • Increasing risk of flood
  • Risks to climate sensitive biodiversity, with impacts on the ecotourism sector

The CBA Namibia portfolio consists of two (2) projects:

Community-Based Adaptation: Niger

Niger is a semi-arid to arid country, and faces significant land degradation stemming from baseline pressures. Climate change threatens to exacerbate these issues, in the process worsening food insecurity and making poverty reduction increasingly challenging. Impacts of climate change are expected to include:

Community-Based Adaptation: Jamaica

As a small island developing state in the Caribbean, Jamaica faces significant climate change impacts, including:

  • Increasingly intense hurricanes
  • Sea-level rise, coastal erosion
  • Saline intrusion into soils and aquifers
  • Declining average precipitation
  • Increasingly erratic and intense rainfall

These impacts pose serious risks to community livelihoods, key socio-economic sectors, and ecosystems.  

Community-Based Adaptation: Samoa

As a small island developing state, Samoa's vulnerability to climate change is high. Homes, infrastructure and livelihoods in Samoa are overwhelmingly concentrated along an increasingly vulnerable coast. Climate change impacts in Samoa will include:

Community-Based Adaptation: Guatemala

Climate change risks to Guatemala include intensification of many historically familiar climate risks, threating rural livelihoods and ecosystems. Climate change pressures are likely to include:

Supporting Climate Resilient Livelihoods in Agricultural Communities in Drought-Prone Areas of Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is a water stressed country with one of the harshest climates in the Central Asian region. Climate change modeling indicates significant increases in temperature and reduction in rainfall. This will lead to a decrease in total volume of water availability that is likely to have a profound impact on agricultural production systems and local farmers. The long-term solution envisaged by the Government of Turkmenistan is to mainstream climate change adaptation in order to secure climate resilient livelihoods in agricultural communities.

Integrating Community-Based Adaptation into Afforestation and Reforestation Programs in Bangladesh

The project is working to transform the way greenbelt afforestation and reforestation programs in Bangladesh are designed and developed.

Community-Based Adaptation: Kazakhstan

While Kazakhstan has a rapidly growing economy, farmers and pastoralists outside of the main urban centers face significant climate change risks to their livelihoods stemming from increased aridity. A combination of rising temperatures, declining average rainfall, and regional deglaciation threaten to cause: