1. Assessing and enhancing project impacts on local adaptive capacity Experiences from Mali and Bangladesh Aliou Faye (IUCN Mali) & Abdul Quddus, IC Bangladesh Adaptation Day (Montreal, December 2005)

2. Project Summary Project To strengthen the capacity of vulnerable communities to cope with Aim:climate-related disasters and adapt to climate change through ecosystem management and restoration (EM&R) or sustainable livelihoods (SL) activities. Partners:IUCN, IISD, SEI-B, InterCooperation Funded by:Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) Duration: 2001 – 2005 (with possibility for extending) Structure:Project Team members from each partner institution Secretariat based in IISD’s European Office in Geneva Phase One: research & communications Phase Two: facilitating adaptation – tools Phase Three (proposed): Capacity building, adaptation monitoring Approach:a) Starting point of adaptation: Reducing current vulnerabilities b) Emphasis on locally-driven, bottom-up approaches to adaptation that complement efforts at national and international levels; c) Adaptation should be based on peoples’ livelihoods d) Given the importance of environmental resources and services to vulnerable peoples’ livelihoods, adaptation must incorporate EM&R

3. CRISTAL (Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation & Livelihoods) Rationale:  Community-level projects may improve adaptive capacity or constrain it  Also, project planners and managers can introduce activities that are neutral where they could have a positive effect 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 project adjustments to improve its impact on adaptive capacity User: Community-level project planners and managers

4. FORMAT: Hardcopy & CD-Rom DESIGN : 1. Set the climate context: Identify impacts of current climate hazards and climate change in the project area, including strategies for coping with these impacts; 2. Set the livelihood context: Identify resources needed to help people conduct their livelihoods, flagging those that are strongly affected by climate stress and important to coping strategies; 3. Screen project activities: Assess how project activities affect the availability and access to key livelihood resources that are strongly affected by climate stress and/or central to coping strategies; and 4. Manage climate risk: Adjust project to increase opportunities to enhance availability / access to key resources, and activities that undermine availability / access are adjusted

5. Mali: Background Located in Sahelian zone, West Africa: 60% arid and desert Facing recurrent drought, occasional flood, deforestation and desertification 80% people depend on agriculture/ rural sector

6. Mali test: PAGEIT (Projet d’Appui à la Gestion des Écosystèmes Inondables dans le Delta Intérieur du Niger ) IUCN project working in wetland area in the north of Mali (started in 2004, funded by Netherlands, Sweden) For sustainable livelihood improvement through decentralised natural resources management Project activities include:  Rehabilitation of channels,  wetland forest restoration and conservation,  Awareness raising on endangered species,  Improving local resources management rules

7. Results of Mali Test Project activities generally improving people’s adaptive capacity – through equitable access to, and better management of, natural resources A couple of negative impacts identified (rehabilitation of channels affecting roads; protection of hippo affecting movement of boats) Project activities with negative impacts adjusted (construction of bridges, boating outside demarcated hippo habitats

8. Bangladesh: Background Located in the north-eastern side of South Asia bordering the Bay of Bengal; mostly low-lying and full of rivers and wetlands; 44% people are poor; depends significantly on agriculture Various natural calamities (floods, drought; tropical cyclone; hailstorms, risk of earthquake) with increasing frequency Sea level rise is a great concern for coastal areas; upward movement of salinity is already experienced

9. Bangladesh Tests: 3 Projects Livelihoods, Empowerment and Agroforestry Project (LEAF) – funded by SDC and implemented by Intercooperation through 20 local NGOs  Poverty alleviation project; follows sustainable rural livelihoods and value chain management approaches.  Activities include institutional development of community based organizations; skills development in NRM and other income generating activities; gender mainstreaming; farmers’ marketing extension Gorai River Restoration Project – funded by Netherlands Govt, implemented by Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB)  To prevent environmental degradation in the Southwest region  Activities include river dredging and other engineering devices of water flow regulation in Gorai river (main branch river of the Ganges) Southwest Area Integrated Water Resources Management Project - funded by ADB, Netherlands Govt, Japan, GOB, implemented by BWDB  Livelihood improvement and economic growth through participatory management of flood control drainage (FCD) systems  Activities include participatory management of water management facilities as well as livelihood improvement activities (vegetable and fruit growing, agro-processing, livestock rearing, handicrafts making and better marketing)

10. Results of Bangladesh Tests LEAF activities generally improving people’s adaptive capacity – by diversifying sources of income; creating access to resources, markets and services; and improving social capital SAIWRM Project had some potential negative impacts on adaptive capacity (e.g. land acquisition, resettlement) Participants gave useful feedback on the tool (suggesting simplifications)

11. Lessons-learned from field testing CRISTAL raises awareness on climate change issues Provides an entry point for discussing observations of climate variability and the impacts of climate change Specifically, it demonstrates the links between climate change, people’s livelihoods and potential impacts of project activities on peoples’ adaptive capacities It is useful in improving project designs Participatory project analysis and adjustments, using the tool, improves people’s participation in the project activities The tool needs certain refinement

12. Next Steps Tool currently being revised based feedback from internal review and field tests Revised versions will be tested on IUCN and Intercooperation SL/NRM projects Tanzania and C. America (Nicaragua or Honduras) Results will feed into ‘final’ hardcopy and CD- Rom versions of the tool, available in mid-2006 Tool will form basis of capacity building and field implementation phase of project, and will continue to be revised/updated as needed