Climate Change Adaptation : Coastal community Responds… Ravadee Prasertcharoensuk Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF)

Sharing an experience on Building Resilience to Climate Change Impacts of Coastal community in Thailand.

Coastal zones are vulnerable to climate variability and change. Key concerns include sea level rise, land loss, changes in maritime storms and flooding, responses to sea level rise and implications for water resources. Directly effect to life and livelihood those Coastal people especially fisher- folks Exposure and sensitivity to climate change and hazards

Climate change : Coastal community Temperature changes will influence organism metabolism and alter ecological processes Changes in precipitation and sea-level rise will have important consequences for the water balance of coastal ecosystems. Climate change is likely to alter patterns of wind and water circulation in the ocean environment. Critical coastal ecosystems such as wetlands, estuaries, and coral reefs are particularly vulnerable change. Climate change may further degrade these valuable ecosystems, threatening their ecological sustainability and the flow of goods and services they provide to human populations.

Elements of vulnerability Chronic degradation of local environments has influenced the short- to medium-term impact of natural hazards and will continue to shape the longer-term options for rebuilding. The presence or absence of sand dunes, mangrove forests, and coral, wherever ecosystems have been undermined, the ability to adapt and regenerate has been severely eroded.

Elements of vulnerability Deforestation of mangrove for intensive shrimp farming, a lucrative export industry, has reduced the livelihood options available to local farming and fishing communities Environmental degradation such as land clearing, coastal erosion, overfishing, and coral mining has reduced the potential for economic recovery from natural hazard because of the loss of traditional income sources related to coastal ecosystems rich in biodiversity and ecological functions.

Elements of vulnerability ‘ The causes of vulnerability are embedded in the political economy of resource use and the resilience of the ecosystems on which livelihoods depend’

Responding to Change in Coastal Areas How can coastal communities be transformed into systems that are more resilient and adaptive to a rising incidence of large disturbances ?

Responding to Change in Coastal Areas Enhance adaptive capacity Address poverty & vulnerability and their structural causes Tackle changing disaster risks and uncertainties

Enhance adaptive capacity

Strengthen the ability of people, organisations and networks to experiment and innovate An awareness, information, knowledge need to be ensured. The institutions, organisations and communites involved in tackling changing of climate, disaster risks and uncertainties creating and strengthening opportunities to innovate and Experiment.

Promote environmentally sensitive and climate smart development Environmental impact assessments including climate change. Development interventions, including ecosystem-based approaches, protecting and restoring the environment and addressing poverty and Vulnerability. Mitigation of greenhouse gases and low emissions strategies being integrated within development plans.

Promote regular learning and reflection to improve the implementation of policies and practices Have disaster risk management policies and practices been changed as a result of reflection and learning-by-doing? Is there a process in place for information and learning to flow from communities to organisations and vice versa?

Promote regular learning and reflection to improve the implementation of policies and practices Disaster risk management policies and practices been changed as a result of reflection and learning-by-doing. Process in place for information and learning to flow from communities to organisations and vice versa.

Use tools and methods to plan for uncertainty and unexpected events Processes need to be put in place to support governments, communities and other stakeholders to effectively manage the uncertainties related to climate change Findings from scenario planning exercises and climate-sensitive vulnerability assessments being integrated into existing Strategies.

Adaptive capacity Diversity in ecological systems Diversity in economic livelihood portfolio Legitimate and inclusive governance structures and social capital.

Address poverty & vulnerability and their structural causes The rights and entitlements of people to access basic services, productive assets and common property resources?

Promote more socially just and equitable economic systems An interventions challenging injustice and exclusion and providing equitable access to sustainable Livelihood opportunities. Climate change impacts been considered and integrated into these intervention.

Forge partnerships to ensure the rights and entitlements of people to access basic services, productive assets and common property resources Networks and alliance are in place to advocate for the rights and entitlements of people to access basic services, productive assets and common property resources.

Empower communities and local authorities to influence the decisions of national governments, NGOs, international and private sector organisations and to promote accountability and transparency Decision-making structures de-centralised, paricipatory and inclusive. Communities, including women, children and other marginalised groups, influence decisions? How do they hold government and other organisations to Account.

Ensure policies and practices to tackle changing disaster risk are flexible, integrated across sectors and scale and have regular feedback loops Links between people and organisations working to reduce changing disaster risks and uncertainties at community, sub- national, national and international levels? How flexible,accountable and transparent are these people and organisations.

Tackle changing disaster risks and uncertainties

Increase access of all stakeholders to information and support services concerning changing disaster risks, uncertainties and broader climate impacts Educational approaches,early warning systems, media and community-led public awareness programmes supporting increased access to information and related support services.

Strengthen collaboration and integrationbetween diverse stakeholders working on disasters, climate and development Climate change adaptation, disaster risk management and development integrated across sectors and scales. Organisatoons working on disasters, climate change and development collaborating.

Periodically assess the effects of climate change on current and future disaster risks and uncertainties Knowledge from meteorology, climatology, social science, and communities about hazards, vulnerabilities and uncertainties being collected,integrated and used at different scales.

Integrate knowledge of changing risks and uncertainties into planning, policy and programme design to reduce the vulnerability and exposure of people’s lives and livelihoods knowledge about changing disaster risks being incorporated into and acted upon within interventions measures to tackle uncertainty beingconsidered in these processes processes strengthening partnerships between communities, governments and other stakeholders.

Local action Maintenance and enhancement of ecosystem functions through sustainable use. Maintenance of local memory of resource use, learning processes for responding to environmental feedback and social cohesion

National and International Mitigation of human-induced causes of hazard Avoidance of perverse incentives for ecosystem degradation that increase sensitivity to hazards Promotion of early warning networks and structures Enhancement of disaster recovery through appropriate donor response Bridging organizations for integrative responses Horizontal networks in civil society for social learning

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