Press Release: Pacific Year of Climate Change 2009
Working with nature to adapt to climate change impacts
Majuro, Marshall Islands, 20 October, 2009 - Nature can be used to help the Pacific
adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Known as Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), this form of adaptation is about
protecting and strengthening a healthy natural environment to help communities build
resilience and become less vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Ensuring that we pinpoint and carry out ways to manage conserve and restore our
ecosystems will ensure that our natural environment can continue to provide ways to
enable people to cope with the impacts of climate change.
“Unless we maintain the integrity of ecosystems and the services that they provide, it
will compound the impact of climate change issues by reducing their economic and
livelihood benefits for people,” said Mr. Stuart Chape, the Programme Manager of
Islands Ecosystems at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme
(SPREP).
Mr. Chape made a presentation on ecosystem based adaptation at the Pacific climate
change roundtable in the Marshall Islands this week with Dr Padma Lal, Chief
Technical Adviser with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
Oceania based in Suva.
SPREP provides technical assistance in integrating different environmental aspects,
many required for successful EbA and works in partnership with a number of
different partner organisations that are also concerned with promoting EbA, such as
IUCN and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).
“The value of this approach, if applied properly means that the whole country needs
to take on ecosystem based adaptation. Working at the community level is vital but it
also needs to be driven at the national level as ecosystem services function at all
scales in a country,” stated Mr. Chape.
“For example, the ecological relationships between water catchments, forests, rivers,
lagoons, and coral reefs need to be linked to viable development options that do not
compromise adaptation to climate change.”
An example of EbA is to protect mangroves or strengthen other coastal vegetation
that lines our shores which helps maintain a defense against storm surges that can
damage homes along the cost, roads and services. At the same time, by having healthy
mangroves or coastal vegetation helps protect fish resources for Pacific livelihoods.
There are many ways that using EbA as a climate change adaptation method will be
more beneficial to Pacific communities.
2
Using natural environment options are often more suitable than constructing physical
infrastructure and does not always need technical and financial expertise. Ecosystem
based adaptation can also make best use of traditional management practices.
“The level of our vulnerability to climate change depends upon our resources and
