This week, the Ministry of Agriculture and SHEFA province are holding El Nino drought preparation workshops for over 100 community representatives from each village on the islands of Nguna, Pele and Emao. Through the Swiss-German GIZ-DEZA program, community disaster gardens are being r
Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change and disaster risks. The island nation
experiences cyclones, storm surges, landslides, flooding and droughts, which may become more intense as a result of
Occupy Vanuatu!
Vegetable Market Climate Protest Against New Global Coal
18 August 2015
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REPUBLIC OF VANUATU
VANUATU METEOROLOGY AND GEO-HAZARDS DEPARTMENT |
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ArtTEK Tanna: Nainé Resilient Societies Center consists of two separate programs with differing objectives and implementation strategies. Program A: TEK & Tech Youth Champions is the subject of this brief. It encompasses youth outreach and community training that brings outside experts to conduct ongoing training and workshops in Climate Change Adaptation. Central to this training are renewable energy systems operations and maintenance paired with sustainable forestry of rapidly-‐renewing building and fuel stocks. These include cash crops or incentivized agro-‐forestry that mitigate forest degradation (like sandalwood, Project brief: ArtTEK Tanna National Advisory Board on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction 2 kauri, canarium and namamau) with additional focus placed on large-‐diameter bamboo and coconut. This focus on fusing economic benefits with climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies is reinforced through knowledge transfer between local communities and visiting experts. Such experts bring news of global best practices in eco literacy and environmental conservation which integrate with local kastom to strengthen climate change mitigation practices at the village level in Vanuatu. Program B: TEK & Tech Resilience Innovators focuses on increasing resilience to climate change worldwide through integration of indigenous management strategies. It will be implemented by ArtTEK Tanna’s New York-‐based Directorial Board & Team through an Administrative Agreement between the governing board and this project’s Community Co-‐Founders in Middle Bush, Tanna.
Following intensive awareness raising and planning in conjunction with a local project assistant, the researchers (UNESCO + Apidae) will travel to Vanuatu to conduct focus groups in three sectors (education, media and conservation area communities), these will be two hour interactive discussions about climate change involving 30-40 people. The fieldwork will last one week including the promotion of the mobile phone based survey.
The project will require hiring a local Project Assistant for approx. 10 working days to prepare and conduct background work in preparation for the focus groups and mobile survey. A Terms of Reference for applicants will be circulated though local contacts and UNESCO’s National Commission.
The project links to the key sector of Environment and Disaster Management within the Primary Sector Development and Environment chapter of the GoV PAA 2006-2015. Specifically this project will contribute to; ‘conduct community awareness of the need to protect the environment including through reduction of risks from natural hazards’, since our study will enable targeted and accurate awareness strategies to be designed based on knowledge gaps. It will also enable the development of risk reduction programs in communities, highlight the importance of conservation areas in the fight against climate change and increase climate change literacy in education.
There are a multitude of climate change projects being undertaken which aim to provide similar adaptation outcomes. These include CCCPIR from SPC-GIZ, USP’s GCCA project and SPREP’s PACC among many more including several initiatives from UNESCO such as climate change education from CCESD. This project aims to complement the already existing work in the area as well as fit in with regional frameworks such as the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change 2006-2015 (PIFACC), the Regional Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Management (2005-2015) (RFADRM) and Pacific Framework for Education for Sustainable Development.
Due to our specific focus on the key sectors (teachers, media and conservation area communities), our perceptual data will contribute to, and complement, existing projects. Duplication of existing studies and projects into risk and impact awareness of climate change is not a concern, firstly due to the lack of existing studies with a climate perceptions focus, secondly due to our specific sector focus and finally due to the complementary nature of updating and improving the resolution of perceptual data on the rapidly evolving subject of climate change.
A component of our project management has been the maintenance of a risk management matrix. The project is inherently low risk due to its targeted focus and the fact that funding has been secured already. Additionally, Vanuatu represents the third and final country for the project so we will have learned lessons from our work in Samoa and Fiji, and refined our strategy and process from previous work.
Following intensive awareness raising and planning in conjunction with a local project assistant, the researchers (UNESCO + Apidae) will travel to Vanuatu to conduct focus groups in three sectors (education, media and conservation area communities), these will be two hour interactive discussions about climate change involving 30-40 people. The fieldwork will last one week including the promotion of the mobile phone based survey.
The project will require hiring a local Project Assistant for approx. 10 working days to prepare and conduct background work in preparation for the focus groups and mobile survey. A Terms of Reference for applicants will be circulated though local contacts and UNESCO’s National Commission.
The project links to the key sector of Environment and Disaster Management within the Primary Sector Development and Environment chapter of the GoV PAA 2006-2015. Specifically this project will contribute to; ‘conduct community awareness of the need to protect the environment including through reduction of risks from natural hazards’, since our study will enable targeted and accurate awareness strategies to be designed based on knowledge gaps. It will also enable the development of risk reduction programs in communities, highlight the importance of conservation areas in the fight against climate change and increase climate change literacy in education.
There are a multitude of climate change projects being undertaken which aim to provide similar adaptation outcomes. These include CCCPIR from SPC-GIZ, USP’s GCCA project and SPREP’s PACC among many more including several initiatives from UNESCO such as climate change education from CCESD. This project aims to complement the already existing work in the area as well as fit in with regional frameworks such as the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change 2006-2015 (PIFACC), the Regional Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Management (2005-2015) (RFADRM) and Pacific Framework for Education for Sustainable Development.
Due to our specific focus on the key sectors (teachers, media and conservation area communities), our perceptual data will contribute to, and complement, existing projects. Duplication of existing studies and projects into risk and impact awareness of climate change is not a concern, firstly due to the lack of existing studies with a climate perceptions focus, secondly due to our specific sector focus and finally due to the complementary nature of updating and improving the resolution of perceptual data on the rapidly evolving subject of climate change.
A component of our project management has been the maintenance of a risk management matrix. The project is inherently low risk due to its targeted focus and the fact that funding has been secured already. Additionally, Vanuatu represents the third and final country for the project so we will have learned lessons from our work in Samoa and Fiji, and refined our strategy and process from previous work.
Tourism represents a significant econoomic activity in the Pacific. It is one of the largest export sectors in the majority of the nations of the Pacific and provides great opportunties for economic growth, employment, and sustainable development. Tourism is vulnerable to a range of risks including natural hazards, economic downturns, health epidemics, market fluctuations etc. Due to its highly climate sensitive nature, Pacific tourism is identifies as a hotspot for major impacts of cliamte change that will affect tourism destinations across the region and exacerbate natural hazards, markets, and other associated risks.
The community Tourism and Climate Change component of SPC-GIZ CCCPIR project aims to strengthen the capacity of selected Pacific Island countries to cope with climate change impacts and associated risks on the community tourism sector. The main activities being undertaken include:
-National consultation workshop for integrated stakeholder engagement accross the tourism, climate change, and natural disaster management areas;
- Mapping community tourism initiatives;
- Risk analysis and vulnerability assessment of selected community tourism initiatives;
- implementations of adaptation interventions in the seleced community tourism initiatives;
- Production of an adaptation manual for community tourism in the Pacific;
- National best practive workshop
The project will use a Climate Risk Management Framework to analyse economic and environmental data to determine the climate risk posed, the costs of these risks and possible adaptation options. A Cost Benefit Analysis will be used to develop priority adaptation options for each scenario across a range of different economic and climate change scenarios over the short, medium and long term. This will also recognize the potential for delayed action. This project is intended to illustrate potential future scenarios, based on the information available. The project will aim to be consistent with the activities of the P-CBA initiative
Demonstrate the use of CBA in CRM context and make informed adaptation choices in the short, medium and long term
· Build on ongoing activities and leverage support from other partners and projects
· Build on local capacity to undertake future economic analysis in support of climate change adaptation decisions
· Further strengthen partnerships between government agencies and other stakeholders in-country