Fog catchers: improving Mexico’s climate resilience using traditional knowledge

A Mexican climate resilience project is adopting the traditional practice of fog catching to address the impacts of water scarcity.

Using fine mesh that has a high capacity for moisture absorption, the structure retains water particles during foggy nights which, when condensed, falls into a central trough connected to a reservoir container.

Driven by the indigenous community, the technique is just one of a number of ancestral methods the project is harnessing to combat climate change vulnerability in the state of Oaxaca.

The region, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, sits between two tropical cyclone basins, and 83% of its 570 municipalities are at high risk of extreme hydrometeorological events, namely drought and frost.

Capacity to deal with these impacts is exacerbated by a significant rate of marginalised and scattered communities, many with their own native languages, making it difficult for the population to access information related to the increasing weather anomalies.

The project has been made possible by the Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA), which is a $20 million partnership first launched a few years ago by the Fund, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Environment Programme, Climate Technology Centre and Network and the European Union. This April AFCIA announced the awarding of the first round of $2.2 million in grants funded by the Adaptation Fund and implemented by UNDP for 22 local innovation in adaptation projects across 19 countries. The Oaxaca project is one of them.