Jim Jarvie of Mercy Corps: The Direction of Adaptation and Development.
2:25 mins, November 2009, Fuller Symposium, Washington, DC

Jim Jarvie was stood apart at the WWF Fuller Symposium last November: he works for Mercy Corps, one of the leading economic development non-governmental organizations active in the developing world today. In this video, he reflects on issues that are extremely relevant to the practice of climate adaptation globally: Is ecosystem-based adaptation different than community-based adaptation? How should environmental organizations and development groups work together? These topics have been burning issues for some time, and I've seen conflict — latent usually but sometimes explicit — directed form each type of group at the other over the past two years. This anxiety and anger are a terrible waste of energy, and there is plenty of fault to go around for the continuation of the fighting. But Jim speaks movingly of the way beyond. Jim was interviewed shortly after his full talk, which is also very much worth viewing at this site.

2:25 minutes, produced and directed by Daphne Patterson of WWF. Read More...

Tags: video, Development

By Nikolai Sindorf, WWF-US, based in Laos

In 1997 I went to the western part of Java in Indonesia to research on agricultural water management. Java is one of the most densely populated regions and high-yielding rice paddy lands in the world. The focus of my research was how rice farmers dealt technologically and organizationally with ongoing reforms in large, engineered irrigation systems. During this research I met a farmer who had meticulously typed out his traditional cropping calendar. This cropping calendar — a titimangsa — read like a beautiful poem, describing the smell of the dew, the color of the sunset, the touch of the soil, and the observation of insect life cycles.
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Tags: nikolai sindorf, water management, Java, indonesia, Development, efficiency

Looking back across the last twenty years, there have been several notable climate change policy and science events. The 1992 Rio Convention helped define the shape of climate change policy for the next decade and created the IPCC as a science advisory board. The Ministerial Declaration of the Hague on Water Security in Twenty-First Century captured many key concepts on water and climate change, linking policy, water management, and the need for a new paradigm. And the Brisbane Convention on environmental flows in 2007 marked a major consensus between policymakers and ecologists and hydrologists that flow regime was the most important aspect of freshwater ecosystems to focus on for sustainable use. This is a good time for reflection on where we've come, and where freshwater conservation and development needs to go next. And fortunately, the Fuller Symposium on 3 and 4 November — titled Securing Water for People and Nature in a Changing Climate — is just in time.

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Tags: policy, conservation, Development

I had a bit of press coverage during World Water Week last August. I'll spare you from the article that appeared in the People's Daily Worker in China, but ThinkGloballyRadio.org conducted a nice 30-minute interview (and I didn't say "uh" too much either, which was a relief). You can stream the interview at the station's website and clicking on the episode listed (at the top right of the window) as 091011. I talk about the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems, the ability of climate change to bring disparate groups together, and the state (as of August 2009) of international freshwater adaptation policy leading up to COP15. Read More...

Tags: impacts, policy, Development

Lets take two scenarios.  On the 18th of December, the world walks away with a new global deal on climate change.  The agreement includes progressive emission targets for rich countries, nationally appropriate mitigation strategies for developing countries, financing for adaptation and a good institutional framework. Alternatively, on the 18th December the negotiations finally break down, no deal is struck and world leaders walk away with nothing.  In our second breakfast roundtable we tackle the implications of the UNFCCC negotiations on international water management policy.  Listen in here.  Read More...

Tags: podcasts, unfccc, climate adaptation, policy, Development, conservation

This video is a fair representation of the overview adaptation talk I've been giving for the past few months, describing how climate adaptation differs from much of the economic development and conservation work up to now and how climate adaptation has some special challenges and opportunities for the water sector. Filmed on 3 August 2009 in Brasilia, DF, Brazil, this is a long flick at 25 minutes, so brace yourself. Although I appear visually a few times in the stream, most of what you see are the presentation slides filling the screen with me (in English) and Martin Charles (my most excellent Portuguese translator) delivering the substance of the keynote talk to a live audience of leading policy and resource management staff from various government and civil society groups. The event was billed as a climate adaptation workshop, spanning two days at a place called the LBV (very interesting in itself) but hosted by WWF-Brazil. Filmed in August 2009. Read More...

Tags: brazil, climate adaptation, portuguese, policy, conservation, video, Development

I’ve just returned from a trip to Brazil, where most of my time was spent talking in Brasilia with colleagues and policymakers working on climate adaptation issues from a freshwater perspective. While I will soon post a video of a talk that I gave (and perhaps some other video content), I’ve just finished a short video from I trip I made to the beautiful savannah or cerrado of interior Brazil a few hundred kilometers from Brasilia. Hope you enjoy! — JM Read More...

Tags: video, brazil, conservation, Development

In this entry, Anurag Danda, the program coordinator for the Sundarbans Adaptation Center, discusses recent relief efforts and the possibilities for long-term solutions to the ongoing climate-driven crises for people and species in the Sundarbans. Can the escalating problem of tropical storms and cyclones such as May 2009’s Alia be prevented or mitigated? Is there even a future for the Sundarbans as inhabited islands? — JM Read More...

Tags: india, climate adaptation, bangladesh, Development, asia

The next stage in the process leading up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Copenhagen meeting (usually referred to as a “cop” or council or consultation of the signatory parties) began this week in Bonn, Germany. I’m not able to attend, but the process is important and I’ve been receiving almost hourly updates from colleagues there. You can see some of their progress and concerns on a video blog in order to get an idea of what being there is like. The most obvious issues are US climate mitigation policy, such as the Waxman/Markey bill (discussed in previous entries). But climate adaptation finance — the “adaptation fund” — is showing up a big second topic as well. Some background on adaptation finance was covered as well in previous entries here indirectly and here for more general issues. However, a “side event” has been planned to continue the process associated with the Nairobi Guiding Principles for freshwater adaptation and the water sector. What are those goals? And why does Bonn matter? Read More...

Tags: climate adaptation, climate mitigation, nairobi statement, finance, policy, unfccc, Development

The Sundarbans are a chain of islands spanning the mouths of the Ganges-Brahmaputra rivers off the shores of India and Bangladesh. They’ve been the subject of several entries here, including some of their human, species, and ecosystem-based vulnerabilities to climate change, disaster risk reduction, and the founding of a regional climate adaptation center. A major tropical storm has hit the region. The regional WWF director for the Sundarbans is Anurag Danda, where he focuses on community-based adaptation and assists with the Bengal tiger program. He emailed me this morning with an update, which I have edited here. Please read his update, see the images he’s sent of the damage, and consider his request for assistance. Contact information included.
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Tags: india, drr, bangladesh, community adaptation, Development

Those of us working in climate adaptation often work alone and in isolation within our organizations. It’s hard to find each other to learn and grow professionally. Moreover, we know we need support — emotional as well as professional, since climate adaptation is challenging and draining work whether you work in DRR, conservation, policy, or economic development. There have been a growing number of online communities that focus on climate adaptation. Here, we’re launching a new one called ClimateAdapt.Info. Read More...

Tags: climate adaptation, policy, conservation, Development, drr, community adaptation

There are three major global water-related meetings: the World Bank’s Water Week every February, World Water Week in Stockholm every August, and the World Water Forum, which occurs every three years (and is discussed in another recent entry). Last February, I was invited to speak about some work I was leading for a team at the Bank’s Water Week. Water Week occurs in Washington, DC, where the World Bank’s global headquarters is located. The World Bank was founded after World War II at the Bretton Woods Conference along with the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund to promote equitable economic development. Water is a critical element in the Bank’s strategy: reliable and sustainable water use and infrastructure development are critical to development in most (all?) parts of the world, so the Bank advises on and funds projects such as dams, irrigation programs, and even habitat restoration. But the World Bank is not a normal place to be for a conservation biologist. Either from the Bank’s perspective or from the biologist’s. We don’t really go to the same kinds of parties. Read More...

Tags: funding, conservation, Development, water management, travel