Introduction to CRiSTAL(Climate Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation

& Livelihoods)Jo-Ellen Parry, Program Manager, Climate Change and Energyjparry@iisd.ca

Second IMI CLIMTRAIN workshopNovember 19, 2008

Outline of Session

Project Background

Introduction to the Tool

Zambia Case Study

Small Group Work

Feedback and Q&As

Project Background:Livelihoods and Climate Change Initiated in 2001 as a response of the NGO community

to the emerging need to adapt to climate change

Objective: Promote an integrated approach that draws from four communities that have long tackled vulnerability reduction: disaster risk reduction; environmental management; poverty reduction; and climate change.

Project goal: To strengthen the role of ecosystem management and restoration (EM&R) activities in reducing the vulnerability of communities to climate-related hazards and climate change

Partners: International Union for the Conservation of Nature; the Stockholm Environment Institute—US; Intercooperation; and IISD

Phase 1: Laying the Foundations(2001 to 2003)

Working with the four communities: Established conceptual framework for vulnerability reduction

Identified, examined and communicated successful EM&R actions that reduce the vulnerability of communities to climate-related hazards and climate change

Mangroves in Vietnam; Watershed restoration in India; Aquifer management in Iran; Forest landscape restoration in Central America

Main conclusions: Starting point of adaptation: reducing current vulnerabilities

Need for bottom-up, local level adaptation

Vulnerability reduction must be based on livelihoods

Livelihoods of the poor are heavily dependent on environmental resources adaptation must integrate NRM / EM&R activities

Phase One Finished…Where Next?Phase One:

Provided examples of EM&R actions that reduce vulnerability to climate-related disasters and climate change

Increased understanding of EM&R practitioners that their activities may potentially enhance adaptive capacity…but how to integrate this understanding systematically into projects?

Phase Two:

Focus on the development and field test of a practical tool that facilitates risk reduction and adaptation

Focus on community-based EM&R and Sustainable Livelihood projects

CRiSTAL: Introduction

Rationale Community-level projects may

improve adaptive capacity or constrain it…but the link may not be obvious.

Need a decision support tool to assess this link.

Goal To promote the integration of

climate change adaptation into community-level projects

CRiSTAL: Why?

PurposeHelp 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 adjustments to a project to improve its impact on adaptive capacity

CRiSTAL: Who? How?

Users

Community-level project designers and managers

Approach

Draw on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) model

Use SL Framework to focus on elements of coping / adaptive capacity at local level

Logical, user-friendly, participatory process

Format:

Excel-based program available on-line and in CD-ROM format

CRiSTAL: Assumptions

Useful and usable local climate change information not accessible / available

Can use current climate situation as basis for analysis

Users (i.e. project designers/managers) have adequate information on local climate and livelihood context to use tool quickly

CRiSTAL can support efforts to develop an adaptation strategy suited to the specific needs of the user

Developing & testing CRiSTAL

2004

•Brainstorming: designing structure, guiding questions•Mock-up prepared and revised•Hardcopy produced, elaborating questions & process

2005

•Tool sent to IUCN and Intercooperation field staff for review •Feedback from field incorporated; Test sites selected•Field tests in Mali, Bangladesh•First computer mock-up prepared•Internal Project Team meeting •Tool revised

2006

•Field tests in Tanzania, Nicaragua & Sri Lanka•Continued revisions to tool•Final revisions•User’s Manual

CRiSTAL’s structure

M1: Synthesizing info on climate and livelihoods

Q1: What is the climate context- Impacts of climate change?- Current hazards - Impacts of hazards- Coping strategies

Q2: What is livelihood context? - Resources?- How affected by hazards?- How important to coping?

M2: Planning and managing projects for adaptation

Q3: What are impacts of project activities on livelihood resources that are…

- Vulnerable to climate risks?- Important to coping?

Q4: How can project activities be adjusted to reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity?

- Synergies and barriers

CRiSTAL Consultations Local visits & consultations key

Consultations involve: Introductory discussion on climate

change Current climate stresses Livelihoods—how affected by climate

and current coping strategies

Two General Approaches Consultations feed into tool Go through tool with community

Consultation formats Informal discussions Organised workshops Something in between… Multiple consultations – focus on

different social groups

Early findings & lessons

CRiSTAL provides a useful framework for understanding the links between climate change, people’s livelihoods and potential impacts of project activities on adaptive capacities

But it is really only a framework – it won’t do the analysis for you.

CRiSTAL framework is adaptable

Can also be a validation process – validating local observations; existing project strategies

Adjustments are often small; are not asking project managers to do anything drastically different

Participatory process is time-consuming but essential

CRiSTAL can complement other tools on the ‘market’

Example: Zambia

IUCN Climate Change & Development Project

Pilot phase in ZambiaJanuary to September 2007

Objective: Ensure that national policies and development interventions in Zambia reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity to climate change

Full-size project in Zambia, Tanzania and MozambiqueDecember 2007 to December 2010

Objective: CC related policies and strategies lead to adaptation activities that emphasize the role of forests and water resources in supporting people’s livelihoods and associated farming systems

CC Assessments using CRiSTAL

1. Get an indication of the risks related to climate change at the local level

2. Introduce CRiSTAL to implementing teams of four on-going projects, helping them assess climate-related risks and adjust project activities so they do not have negative impacts on local coping strategies

3. Provide information on climate hazards and local coping strategies to decision-makers and other actors involved in national level climate change policy (e.g. NAPA and National Communication processes)

Project Sites & Agroecological Zones

CRiSTAL used with 8 rural stakeholder groups at 4 field project sites located in 3 different agro-ecological zones

CRiSTAL Process

Module 1: Setting climate and livelihood contexts

Meetings with 8 rural community groups: beekeepers, members of women’s clubs, members of charcoal burners association, farmers, fishermen, and members of village resource management committees

Module 2: Planning and managing projects for CC adaptation Meetings with: Local project teams Staff from development organizations and programmes Government officials from departments of forestry, agriculture, and

fisheries

Results: Climate Hazards

Variability is a feature of the Zambian climate, which has a history of droughts and floods

Community consultations revealed rise in the frequency and severity of extreme events, including droughts, floods and high temperatures, and decrease in length of the rainy season

Findings in line with IPCC climate change observations and predictions for the 20th and 21st centuries: ↑ frequency of warm spells and heat waves over most land area warmer and more frequent hot days and nights ↑ area affected by drought ↑ frequency of heavy precipitation events

Results: Impacts of climate hazards

Results: Impacts of climate hazards (2)

The rise in extreme climatic events is negatively affecting the natural, physical, financial, and human resources that are crucial for people’s livelihoods, and is leading to increased food insecurity and health issues

The severity of current impacts points out the communities’ high vulnerability to climate change and variability

CC not the only factor involved (e.g. resource management plays a role as well), but CC provides an additional threat that adds to, interacts with, and can reinforce existing risks, placing additional strains on the livelihoods and coping strategies of communities

Results: LR most affected by hazards

Results: Coping strategies

Current coping strategies include: income diversification (charcoal burning, honey production,

fishing, grass selling) gathering wild foods from the forest using medicinal plants to treat diseases

However, these coping strategies are not sufficient to deal effectively with present climate change and variability

When facing climate hazards, small scale farmers rely heavily on access to alternative natural resources from forests and wetlands e.g. wood, charcoal, grass, honey, wild plants, fish

Results: LR resources most important to coping

Results: Impact of activities on key LR resources

Most project activities had both + and - potential impacts on resources that are important for people’s adaptation

Project teams were able to come up with small modifications to project activities in order to: decrease potential negative impacts on livelihood resources increase positive impacts transform neutral impacts into positive impacts

Completion of the synergies and barriers matrix allowed project teams to see if these modifications were feasible and which barriers would need to be removed

Results: Adjusting project activities

Examples of activities analyzed in Luapula Province (PLARD project)Setting up fish processing facilitiesPromoting productivity of cassava

Fishing (as alternative food and income source) and increasing production of cassava (which is drought resilient) are important coping strategies to deal with drought and floods

But, due to current climate variability and change: Fish stocks ↓due to higher water temp (exacerbated by continued over-

fishing) Big post-harvest cassava losses due to very high humidity levels during

storage

Modifications proposed by project teams: Promote local fisheries management groups and sustainable fishing

practices Possibility to introduce fish farming, instead of solely relying on wild fish

stocks – this would need an impact assessment as well Development of techniques for cassava storage – should be a priority

before promoting cassava productivity

Results: Adjusting project activities (2)

Going through the process provided the opportunity for project teams to understand more clearly links between project activities and CC vulnerability and adaptation

Also useful in sensitizing project teams, governments and communities on the necessity of including CC as an important issue in decision making

SMALL GROUP WORK

QUESTIONS?