Transcript Introduction to CRiSTAL

Introduction to CRiSTAL
(Climate Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation & Livelihoods)
Jo-Ellen Parry, Program Manager, Climate Change and Energy
[email protected]
Second IMI CLIMTRAIN workshop
November 19, 2008
Outline of Session
 Project Background
 Introduction to the Tool
 Zambia Case Study
 Small Group Work
 Feedback and Q&As
Project Background:
Livelihoods and Climate Change
 Initiated in 2001 as a response of the NGO community
to the emerging need to adapt to climate change
 Objective: Promote an integrated approach that draws
from four communities that have long tackled
vulnerability reduction: disaster risk reduction;
environmental management; poverty reduction; and
climate change.
 Project goal: To strengthen the role of ecosystem
management and restoration (EM&R) activities in
reducing the vulnerability of communities to climaterelated hazards and climate change
 Partners: International Union for the Conservation of
Nature; the Stockholm Environment Institute—US;
Intercooperation; and IISD
Phase 1: Laying the Foundations
(2001 to 2003)
 Working with the four communities:
 Established conceptual framework for vulnerability reduction
 Identified, examined and communicated successful EM&R
actions that reduce the vulnerability of communities to
climate-related hazards and climate change
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Mangroves in Vietnam;
Watershed restoration in India;
Aquifer management in Iran;
Forest landscape restoration in Central America
 Main conclusions:
 Starting point of adaptation: reducing current vulnerabilities
 Need for bottom-up, local level adaptation
 Vulnerability reduction must be based on livelihoods
 Livelihoods of the poor are heavily dependent on environmental
resources  adaptation must integrate NRM / EM&R activities
Phase One Finished…Where Next?
Phase One:
 Provided examples of EM&R actions that reduce vulnerability to
climate-related disasters and climate change
 Increased understanding of EM&R practitioners that their activities
may potentially enhance adaptive capacity…but how to integrate
this understanding systematically into projects?
Phase Two:
 Focus on the development and field test of a practical tool that
facilitates risk reduction and adaptation
 Focus on community-based EM&R and Sustainable Livelihood
projects
CRiSTAL: Introduction
Rationale
 Community-level projects may
improve adaptive capacity or
constrain it…but the link may
not be obvious.
 Need a decision support tool to
assess this link.
Goal
 To promote the integration of
climate change adaptation into
community-level projects
CRiSTAL: Why?
Purpose
 Help users to systematically
understand the links between
livelihoods and climate
 Enable users to assess a
project’s impact on
community-level adaptive
capacity
 Assist users in making
adjustments to a project to
improve its impact on
adaptive capacity
CRiSTAL: Who? How?
Users
 Community-level project designers and
managers
Approach
 Draw on Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) model
 Use SL Framework to focus on elements
of coping / adaptive capacity at local level
 Logical, user-friendly, participatory process
Format:
 Excel-based program available on-line and
in CD-ROM format
CRiSTAL: Assumptions
 Useful and usable local climate change information not
accessible / available
 Can use current climate situation as basis for analysis
 Users (i.e. project designers/managers) have adequate
information on local climate and livelihood context to use
tool quickly
 CRiSTAL can support efforts to develop an adaptation
strategy suited to the specific needs of the user
Developing & testing CRiSTAL
2004
• Brainstorming: designing structure, guiding questions
• Mock-up prepared and revised
• Hardcopy produced, elaborating questions & process
2005
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Tool sent to IUCN and Intercooperation field staff for review
Feedback from field incorporated; Test sites selected
Field tests in Mali, Bangladesh
First computer mock-up prepared
Internal Project Team meeting
Tool revised
2006
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Field tests in Tanzania, Nicaragua & Sri Lanka
Continued revisions to tool
Final revisions
User’s Manual
CRiSTAL’s structure
M1: Synthesizing info on
climate and livelihoods
M2: Planning and managing
projects for adaptation
Q1: What is the climate context
- Impacts of climate change?
- Current hazards
- Impacts of hazards
- Coping strategies
Q3: What are impacts of project
activities on livelihood
resources that are…
- Vulnerable to climate risks?
- Important to coping?
Q2: What is livelihood context?
- Resources?
- How affected by hazards?
- How important to coping?
Q4: How can project activities
be adjusted to reduce
vulnerability and enhance
adaptive capacity?
- Synergies and barriers
CRiSTAL Consultations
 Local visits & consultations key
 Consultations involve:
 Introductory discussion on climate
change
 Current climate stresses
 Livelihoods—how affected by climate
and current coping strategies
 Two General Approaches
 Consultations feed into tool
 Go through tool with community
 Consultation formats
 Informal discussions
 Organised workshops
 Something in between…
 Multiple consultations – focus on
different social groups
Early findings & lessons
 CRiSTAL provides a useful framework for understanding the links
between climate change, people’s livelihoods and potential impacts
of project activities on adaptive capacities
 But it is really only a framework – it won’t do the analysis for you.
 CRiSTAL framework is adaptable
 Can also be a validation process – validating local observations;
existing project strategies
 Adjustments are often small; are not asking project managers to do
anything drastically different
 Participatory process is time-consuming but essential
 CRiSTAL can complement other tools on the ‘market’
Example: Zambia
IUCN Climate Change & Development
Project
Pilot phase in Zambia
January to September 2007
Objective: Ensure that national policies and development
interventions in Zambia reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptive
capacity to climate change
Full-size project in Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique
December 2007 to December 2010
Objective: CC related policies and strategies lead to adaptation
activities that emphasize the role of forests and water resources in
supporting people’s livelihoods and associated farming systems
CC Assessments using CRiSTAL
1.
Get an indication of the risks related to climate change
at the local level
2.
Introduce CRiSTAL to implementing teams of four ongoing projects, helping them assess climate-related
risks and adjust project activities so they do not have
negative impacts on local coping strategies
3.
Provide information on climate hazards and local
coping strategies to decision-makers and other actors
involved in national level climate change policy (e.g.
NAPA and National Communication processes)
Project Sites & Agroecological Zones
CRiSTAL used with 8
rural stakeholder
groups at 4 field
project sites located in
3 different agroecological zones
CRiSTAL Process
Module 1: Setting climate and livelihood
contexts
 Meetings with 8 rural community groups:
beekeepers, members of women’s clubs,
members of charcoal burners association,
farmers, fishermen, and members of
village resource management committees
Module 2: Planning and managing projects for CC adaptation
Meetings with:
 Local project teams
 Staff from development organizations and programmes
 Government officials from departments of forestry, agriculture, and
fisheries
Results: Climate Hazards
 Variability is a feature of the Zambian climate, which has
a history of droughts and floods
 Community consultations revealed rise in the frequency
and severity of extreme events, including droughts,
floods and high temperatures, and decrease in length of
the rainy season
 Findings in line with IPCC climate change observations
and predictions for the 20th and 21st centuries:
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↑ frequency of warm spells and heat waves over most land area
warmer and more frequent hot days and nights
↑ area affected by drought
↑ frequency of heavy precipitation events
Results: Impacts of climate hazards
Results: Impacts of climate hazards (2)
 The rise in extreme climatic events is negatively affecting the
natural, physical, financial, and human resources that are
crucial for people’s livelihoods, and is leading to increased
food insecurity and health issues
 The severity of current impacts points out the communities’
high vulnerability to climate change and variability
 CC not the only factor involved (e.g. resource management
plays a role as well), but CC provides an additional threat that
adds to, interacts with, and can reinforce existing risks,
placing additional strains on the livelihoods and coping
strategies of communities
Results: LR most affected by hazards
Results: Coping strategies
 Current coping strategies include:
 income diversification (charcoal burning, honey production,
fishing, grass selling)
 gathering wild foods from the forest
 using medicinal plants to treat diseases
 However, these coping strategies are not sufficient to deal
effectively with present climate change and variability
 When facing climate hazards, small scale farmers rely heavily
on access to alternative natural resources from forests and
wetlands
 e.g. wood, charcoal, grass, honey, wild plants, fish
Results: LR resources most important to
coping
Results: Impact of activities on key LR
resources
 Most project activities had both + and - potential
impacts on resources that are important for people’s
adaptation
 Project teams were able to come up with small
modifications to project activities in order to:
 decrease potential negative impacts on livelihood resources
 increase positive impacts
 transform neutral impacts into positive impacts
 Completion of the synergies and barriers matrix
allowed project teams to see if these modifications
were feasible and which barriers would need to be
removed
Results: Adjusting project activities
Examples of activities analyzed in Luapula Province (PLARD project)
 Setting up fish processing facilities
 Promoting productivity of cassava
 Fishing (as alternative food and income source) and increasing production
of cassava (which is drought resilient) are important coping strategies to
deal with drought and floods
But, due to current climate variability and change:
 Fish stocks ↓due to higher water temp (exacerbated by continued overfishing)
 Big post-harvest cassava losses due to very high humidity levels during
storage
Modifications proposed by project teams:
 Promote local fisheries management groups and sustainable fishing
practices
 Possibility to introduce fish farming, instead of solely relying on wild fish
stocks – this would need an impact assessment as well
 Development of techniques for cassava storage – should be a priority
before promoting cassava productivity
Results: Adjusting project activities (2)
 Going through the process provided the opportunity
for project teams to understand more clearly links
between project activities and CC vulnerability and
adaptation
 Also useful in sensitizing project teams,
governments and communities on the necessity of
including CC as an important issue in decision
making
SMALL GROUP WORK
QUESTIONS?