Transcript Environmental strategies for increasing human - BASIC

Environmental Strategies for Increasing Human
Resilience to Climate Change in Sudan: A Tool”
International Workshop on “Vulnerability and
Adaptation to Climate Change: From Practice to
Policy” from May 11 –12, 2006 and the BASIC group
meeting on May 13, 2006 at New Delhi, India
By
Dr. Balgis Elasha
AIACC-AF14 project
• The project emphasized links between current & future
vulnerabilities & adaptive strategies
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Sectors Studied
• a ) Directly addressing:
– Agriculture sector: crop production, livestock, mixed croplivestock
– Water resources
– Food security
b) Indirectly addressing:
– Forestry
– Ecosystems: grasslands, forests
– Biodiversity .
• Evaluated adaptive strategies, emphasizing those that might lessen
current vulnerabilities as well as longer term vulnerabilities to
climate change.
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Sources of Stress and Change
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a) The primary sources of stress and change addressed were:
Climate variability and extremes: drought, low rainfall
Fluctuation in seasonal stream flow (Khor Abu Habi)
b) The secondary sources of stress or change addressed were:
Land degradation, desertification
Land use change
Institutional change
Policy change
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Selected case studies
• Three case studies were
conducted covering areas
located in the West, Centre
and Eastern Sudan between
lat 10o –18oN). Namely:
• 1st. Case study
Community-Based
Rangeland Rehabilitation
in Sudan in Geraigikh –
West Central Sudan/ North
Kordofan State
• 2nd. Case study / Khor
Arba’at Rehabilitation
Programme (KARP): Red
Sea State- Eastern Sudan
• 3rd. Case study/ Water
Harvesting Technique as a
Coping Mechanism to
Climate Variability and
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Criteria for selection of CSs
• Selected case studies that involve past or ongoing
climate-related events that are representative of
projected future climate change (e.g., prolonged
drought).
• That involve climate-related events that are
representative of experiences of neighboring
Sahelian countries.
• That explore specific examples of communitylevel SL/EM strategies which have been applied &
could be applied in Sudan and in other countries.
• Case studies that could explore specific examples
of community-level SL/EM applications that are
considered successful by government and/or civil
society groups, and are confirmed as successful by
the communities themselves.
• Case studies that involve clear research objectives,
available data, and feasible fieldwork strategies.
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Approach
The AF-14 project was based on the following premises
• pre-eminent goal of adaptation should be to increase the
coping capacity of vulnerable groups
• To do this, small-scale, community-level strategies will be
needed alongside the large-scale, technical/structural
approach
• Make use of methods that have been developed in separate
fields of practice – sustainable livelihoods, natural resource
management, disaster risk management .
• Those strategies which can accomplish added social and
environmental goals (e.g., slowing desertification) – can
diversify and strengthen national adaptation plans of
developing countries, and development efforts in general.
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Sustainable livelihood strategies in Sudan:
lessons for climate change adaptation
Basic definitions
1. Sustainable Livelihood
• Conceptually, livelihoods connote the means, activities, entitlements
and assets by which people make a living.
• The Brundtland Commission in 1987:Intrdoduced SL in terms of
resources ownership, access to basic needs and livelihood security
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The IISD: “SL concerned with people's capacities to generate &
maintain their means of living, enhance their well- being, and that of
future generations.
The definition used by the UK's (DFID): A livelihood comprises the
capabilities, assets & activities required for a means of living
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Livelihood assessment
Livelihood assessment is a way of looking
at how an individual, a household or a
community behaves under specific frame
conditions.
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How to understand livelihood
systems?
Through analysis of the coping and adaptive
strategies pursued by individuals and
communities as a response to external
shocks and stresses such as drought, civil
strife and policy failures
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Objectives of the case studies
• Generate informative background material on each
community’s unique context, vulnerabilities,
assets, coping strategies, etc.;
• Within each community, employ methods to
measure community resilience to climate-related
impacts, with and without the project measures;
• Employ policy analysis techniques to explore the
relationship between community resiliencebuilding activities and micro-, meso- and macroscale policies, institutions and processes; and
• From the above, draw lessons for increasing
community climate resilience that can be applied
to adaptation and related processes.
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The aim of the research activities:
• understanding the local context (i.e.,
geographic, socio-economic, development, etc) of
the communities in which the particular SL/EM
strategy has been implemented,
• uncovering the local response (e.g., changes in
productive systems, allocation of resources,
transitions to alternative livelihoods, etc) of
households to the intervention.
• Collecting information on the local and national
enabling factors such as land tenure systems and
local institutions ( both quantitative and qualitative
information will be sought through case studies).
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Research methodology
• Desk-based research: wide literature coverage,
• on-site fieldwork : involve a mixture of direct
observation and intensive dialogue with
representatives of the host communities, and to
rely on
• Local informants;
• Interviews;
• Targeted questionnaires and;
• Participatory screening of results
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Sources of information
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community groups,
local, regional and international NGOs;
government agencies;
university departments and;
bilateral and multilateral development
agencies
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Measuring adaptive capacity
Community’s coping and adaptive capacities in the face of climatic
variability and extremes (drought) is used as proxy for its level of
coping and adaptive capacity for future climate change.
Use of DFID SL model and notion of the five capitals (natural,
physical, human, social and financial
• Within the SL framework the project employed the Livelihood
Assets Tracking (LAST) system to measure changes in coping and
adaptive capacity.
• Consultation with communities and households to develop
indicators of community resilience and construct word pictures to
assess their own vulnerability and coping capacity to a climaterelated impact
• Employed in indicators development – word pictures (quality of
life indices) are the main tool of the LAST system for gathering
and reorganizing data
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Sustainable livelihoods capital
assets
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Natural capital
Financial capital
Physical capital
Human capital
Social capital
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Dimensions considered
• Productivity
• Equity
• Sustainability
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Special considerations
Sustainability in this context is defined in a
broad manner and implies:
• The ability to cope with and recover from shocks
and stresses;
• Economic effectiveness;
• Ecological integrity, ensuring that livelihood
activities do not irreversibly degrade natural
resources within a given ecosystem; and
• Social equity which suggests that promotion of
livelihood opportunities for one group should
not foreclose options for other groups, either
now or in the future
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SL/EM measures considered
SL/Environmental Management Measures
(SL/EM): like rangelands management, ,
soil conservation, etc., each of which
involves an array of specific measures (e.g.,
water harvesting, intercropping, livestock
diversification, and establishment of shelter
belts.
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Preliminary list of generic indicators developed includes
• Land degradation (slowed or reversed);
• Condition of the vegetation cover (stabilized or
improved);
• Soil and/or crop productivity (stabilized or
increased);
• Water supply (stabilized or increased);
• Average income levels (stabilized or increased);
• Food stores (stabilized or increased);
• Migration (slowed, stabilized, or reversed
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Social indicators
• Organizational set-up (local village
committees)
• Role of village committees in the decision
making process.
• Membership to organizations Sharing of
responsibility
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Policies and institutions
• Local level institution (community leaders,
religious men, elites, local NGOs,
• Government agencies
• Polices related to relation :
• Taxes
• Market prices
• Incentives
• Land tenure
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Sample of results
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Improved resource base
(rangeland area, diversity of
species and carrying capacity).
Physical Capital:
– Improved water availability and
quality.
– Improved food security situation
(grains stores, grains mills)
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Financial Capital:
– Diversified income sources
improved (sheep fattening, women
gardens, poultry, cottage industries
etc)
– Improved market access, local
market linked to national and
regional markets (favored by
supportive policy)
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Before
After
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60
40
20
0
transition from
agri. land to
grazing land
application of
sustainable
grazing system
quality of
animal
production
range land
quality
Indicators
Situation of each indicator
(%)
Natural capital:
100
Before
After
80
60
40
20
0
e ffe ctive
manage me nt
s ys te m applie d to
wate r we lls
no. of pe ople
traine d on
mainte nance for
wate r pumps
availability of
s par parts
Indicators
Situation of each indicator (%)
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Situation of each y indicator (%)
From Bara case study
100
Before
After
80
60
40
20
0
avai l abi l i ty
of
i nformati on
sui tabi l i ty of effecti veness
l ocal
of credi t
i nsti tuti ons
repayment
support of
credi t
systems
support of
government
pol i cy
Indicators
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Results Cont.
• Human capital:
– Increased number of skilled labour
– Improved health conditions /education and awareness.
• Social capital:
– Social network and organization set up/ improved
ability to mobilize community and to pRTICIPte in
decision making.
– Improved social equity /marginal groups and women
are well represented and participating in community
development
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Concluding remarks
Tapping the SL Approach: What can it do for adaptation?
Using this as a tool in adaptation assessment can help to:
• Enable national planning processes to effectively consider the
most vulnerable groups; articulate unique local vulnerabilities
• Identify locally-relevant resilience-building options
• Build understanding of micro- and macro-level enabling
conditions for adaptation
• Build local adaptation awareness and engage local actors e.g
CBOs and NGOs (potential adaptation project implementers)
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Thanks
For more information on The Poject
• Visit AICC website
– www.start.org/Projects/AIACC_Project/aiacc.html
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