UNDP Adaptation Bulletin Showcases Initiatives in Armenia and Albania

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November 2012: The October issue of the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) quarterly Adaptation Bulletin features articles on: supporting climate change adaptation in Armenia and Albania; and training Asian government officials to internalize the economics of adaptation into national investment and planning decisions.
In addition to the Armenian and Albanian projects, the Bulletin highlights UNDP support for similar adaptation initiatives in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The Bulletin notes that the UNDP adaptation initiative in Armenia’s mountain forest ecosystems integrated climate change risk management into biodiversity and forest management practices to address forest degradation and fragmentation, invasive species and wildfires. It indicates that the initiative recently introduced early warning systems and forest health monitoring tools to mainstream climate change risks into forest management planning. According to the Bulletin, the project has made significant progress in improving wildfire management through, inter alia, building disaster risk resilience, enhancing cross-institutional coordination and promoting national ownership.
In Albania, the Bulletin describes how local communities in the Drini-Mati River Delta identified biodiversity and species loss, pressure on dunes and groundwater systems and threats to agriculture, infrastructure and tourism as key concerns, during a UNDP-facilitated climate risk assessment, prioritization and adaptation process. The communities proposed preventing coastal erosion and flood protection through traditional materials use and increasing connectivity of coastal protected areas through bio-corridors. Government officials are now evaluating these proposed coastal adaptation measures for policy adoption and integration.
The Bulletin further describes a collaborative UNDP and the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) ADAPT Asia-Pacific capacity building programme is training technical government officers on the economics of adaptation, including how adaptation relates to medium and long-term national, sub-national and sectoral development plans and budgets. The programme also trains officers to use cost-benefit tools to evaluate adaptation investment projects for financing by different funds, including the Adaptation Fund (AF), Green Climate Fund (GCF), Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).
The Bulletin also includes sections on resources, announcements and portfolio information. The Bulletin is produced by UNDP-Global Environmental Facility’s (GEF) Environment and Energy Group. [UNDP Adaptation Bulletin]

Click here for this in full at Climate Change Policy : http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/undp-adaptation-bulletin-showcases-initiatives-in-armenia-and-albania/165181/