Simon Thuo; GCCA consultant Resilience Framework to support Climate Adaptation in the Mt Elgon Region Simon Thuo; GCCA consultant

Introduction : GCCA & ACCESS GCCA- Global Climate Change Alliance ACCESS- Africa Collaborative Centre for Earth System Sciences Launched in 2007 between EU and developing countries for exchange of experience and practical approaches to integrate climate change into development policies and budgets. provides technical and financial support to integrate climate change into policies, budgets, and implementation projects that address climate change on the ground promotes climate-resilient, low-emission development. Non-profit organisation for regional collaboration in multi-disciplinary scientific research Examines global environmental changes (GEC), including climate; desertification, lakes, marine ecosystems, geomorphic and impacts of combinations Platform for scientists and practitioners in Africa to coordinate efforts, set research agenda; collate findings and approaches

Background to Mt Elgon project Challenges Floods, landslides Rapid population growth Land use changes Critical environmental degradation from deforestation and poor agricultural practice Results Adverse impacts on the health, food security and economic development potential of the population Loss of flora, fauna, destruction of catchments, soil erosion, siltation, rapid run-off Poor access to food, water, energy and forest resources Increasing poverty and vulnerability, higher exposure to hazards

Resilience Framework for Climate Adaptation in Mt Elgon Purpose: strengthen societal and ecological resilience to adverse climate impacts Expected outputs Enhanced coordination and adaptive action between stakeholders Improved collaboration between government, civil society and research institutions. Timely, accurate and comprehensive information for Mt Elgon water tower Actions Improve scientific knowledge of Climate Change information; Demonstrate increased social and ecological resilience in hot spots of climate vulnerability using adaptation strategies like ecosystem based adaptation (EBA); Integrating evidence from adaptation approaches into policies across sectors and; Enhancing learning on CC adaptation strategies at local to regional levels. Lead partners: IUCN (implementation) ACCESS (Scientific Research/climate modeling) GCCA (technical support to ACCESS); GWP (policy aspects) Key stakeholders: Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Mt Elgon Local Governments, NGOs

Examples of promising climate adaptation initiatives Mt Kenya: Sagana Women Fish and Beekieepng with $50,000 grant. 50% income ploughed back to environment and community projects. In 10 years they have: Established tree nurseries and planted over 1,000,000 indigenous trees in the degraded Hombe Forest and to rehabilitate riparian areas Invested $70,000 in ponds increased fish stock from 600 to 33,000; Constructed cold storage facilities; market and other assets worth over $200,000 Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project (RISEMP) in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Colombia (GEF World Bank) using Payment for Ecosystem Services to rehabilitate degraded pastures. Result: 66% improve in pasture, 33% more forest, 67% more connectivity of forest fragment via live fences

Process for Development of Mt Elgon Resilience Framework Collect and analyse relevant information: Demographic (population & growth, livelihoods and income) Environmental (Geologic, Hydrological, forest, land cover) Land use, crops, households Climate: Temperature, rainfall, wind patterns Governance, Institutions, key developmental activities Existing hazards, challenges, driving forces Model climate change effects to the next 70 years Identify likely climate impacts on determinant factors on the landscape eg forest, hydrology, rainfall, soils Field visits to compare ground situation with models (groundtruthing) Prepare criteria for hotspots, identify characteristics and likely impacts of climate, environment and demographic changes

Science & Research findings ACCESS, with GCCA support has analysed geology, climate, hydrology, land cover/land use, human settlement & administrative boundaries Multi-disciplinary team has developed predictions on changes to temperature, rainfall and land cover These are interposed with existing problems to come up with proposals on enhancing environmental and human wellbeing in Mt Elgon region on a growing population. Developed maps showing hotspots- regions of Mt Elgon where the human population is highly vulnerable due to geologic, environmental and land cover changes for the coming 70 years.

Groundtruthing ACCESS-IUCN-GCCA team, political leaders , technical officers from Govt agencies & districts on field visit of Mt Elgon;- established where significant impacts from landslides have already occurred. Identified places where change in landuse from forest reserve to maize farms was creating and accelerating soil erosion. provided local leaders with technical explanations of why these adverse outcomes were being experienced and the implications of additional stress in the particular areas.

Selecting pilot project location Manafua and Sabwani catchments Site criteria Actions criteria Suffer from biodiversity , climate change risks and disasters—landslides, flooding, drought, reduced water availability, increased temperature Heavy reliance on natural resources base for the wellbeing of the local communities Promote equity between and within Uganda and Kenya Cost below USD 375,000 Populations are at risk Good institutional /community support , participatory and demonstrate sustainability Can build on Ecosystem Based Adaptation in Mt Elgon and MERECEP project work or vice versa Clearly focus on climate adaptation Ecosystem-based and improve social resilience, e.g. alternative livelihoods and ecological resilience, e.g. use of energy conservation reducing reliance on wood fuel Can produce measurable results in 2 years and longer term Opportunities for continous improvement, lesson learning, enhance adaptation, up-scaling and/or influence policy Incorporate gender aspects Utilise best practices e.g. collaborative management, shamba system, conservation agriculture; soil and water conservation measures; and agro-forestry.

Next steps Repeat process for Resilience Framework to the selected catchments of Sabwani (Kenya) and Manafu (Uganda) to identify specific characteristics Repeat administration of site and action criteria to narrow down to well defined hotspots Stakeholder meeting to agree on priority intervention hotspots Development of feasibility and project profile for selected hotspots Formulation of project implementation plan Iteration of same process for other areas of concern by district teams…. Which is why you are here!