N$127 million for climate project
More than 200 000 citizens will benefit from resilience-building projects in eight landscapes.
The Green Climate Fund recently approved funding for the implementation of a climate-change adaptation protect in Namibia to the tune of N$127 million.
The project is expected to build the resilience of more than 200 000 people living in eight selected landscapes in Namibia and will be implemented over a five-year period.
The funding was approved under the recently created Simplified Approval Process (SAP) funding window, for the project entitled “Building resilience of communities living in landscapes threatened under climate change through an Ecosystems-based Adaptation approach (EbA) in Namibia”.
The project will be implemented in eight landscapes in 13 of the 14 regions of Namibia.
These are the Central Northern Landscape, Lower Eastern Landscape, Kavango West and East Landscape, Kunene North Landscape, Kunene South and Dâures Landscape, Southern Landscape, Zambezi East Landscape and Zambezi West and Kyaramacan Landscape.
These landscapes encompass most of Namibia's conservancies and community forests and are home to the majority of natural resources-reliant communities.
They cover one fifth of Namibia´s land surface and accommodate more than 200 000 people.
The overall objective of the project is to increase climate-change resilience through the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation actions that strengthen social and ecological systems to sustain livelihoods at local level and facilitate value chains of natural resources.
The project specifically aims to enhance the resilience of natural resources and livelihoods sensitive to climate change impacts by improving community adaptive capacities to sustainably manage natural resources.
It also aims to maintain and enhance ecosystem integrity to continue to support the generation of food and income in order to reduce the severity of negative socio-economic impacts of climate change on vulnerable rural households.
According to the project proposal it has three components, of which the first one seeks to enhance capacities of rural communities reliant on ecosystem goods and services through developing landscape strategies and coordination mechanisms that are community-led in the eight landscapes.
Landscape governance systems through participatory decision-making processes among community groups themselves or neighbouring communities will be implemented, while promoting knowledge sharing among communities and other stakeholders outside the target landscapes.
According to the project proposal, once strategic interventions regarding capacity enhancement have been established, the second component will support specific EbA activities that are organised and executed to support the implementation of landscape strategies.
This will be achieved through the implementation of a small-grant finance mechanism to address the financial, capacity and adaptation needs.
This component will support a minimum of 30 grants that will implement “soft engineering” ecosystem restoration actions.
This will be implemented in critical ecosystems to reduce vulnerability of ecosystem services and increase resilience of local communities.
Additionally, successful EbA requires financial incentives for communities and the project will support small-scale community-based enterprises that promote biodiversity conservation goals.
These may include bee-keeping for honey production, tree-planting activities, sustainable enterprise development from bush encroachment, agro-tourism, use of medical herbs and production of handicrafts.
The third component will support learning and knowledge-management activities with the aim to capture and disseminate lessons learned and to influence policy.
Overall, the project will increase the capacity, skills and livelihood alternatives of communities, which in turn will diversify and stabilise local economies, thus creating new possibilities for sustainable growth under changing climatic conditions.
By the end of the project there will be a greatly increased supply of products/benefits from natural ecosystems within the eight targeted landscapes.
ELLANIE SMIT
The project is expected to build the resilience of more than 200 000 people living in eight selected landscapes in Namibia and will be implemented over a five-year period.
The funding was approved under the recently created Simplified Approval Process (SAP) funding window, for the project entitled “Building resilience of communities living in landscapes threatened under climate change through an Ecosystems-based Adaptation approach (EbA) in Namibia”.
The project will be implemented in eight landscapes in 13 of the 14 regions of Namibia.
These are the Central Northern Landscape, Lower Eastern Landscape, Kavango West and East Landscape, Kunene North Landscape, Kunene South and Dâures Landscape, Southern Landscape, Zambezi East Landscape and Zambezi West and Kyaramacan Landscape.
These landscapes encompass most of Namibia's conservancies and community forests and are home to the majority of natural resources-reliant communities.
They cover one fifth of Namibia´s land surface and accommodate more than 200 000 people.
The overall objective of the project is to increase climate-change resilience through the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation actions that strengthen social and ecological systems to sustain livelihoods at local level and facilitate value chains of natural resources.
The project specifically aims to enhance the resilience of natural resources and livelihoods sensitive to climate change impacts by improving community adaptive capacities to sustainably manage natural resources.
It also aims to maintain and enhance ecosystem integrity to continue to support the generation of food and income in order to reduce the severity of negative socio-economic impacts of climate change on vulnerable rural households.
According to the project proposal it has three components, of which the first one seeks to enhance capacities of rural communities reliant on ecosystem goods and services through developing landscape strategies and coordination mechanisms that are community-led in the eight landscapes.
Landscape governance systems through participatory decision-making processes among community groups themselves or neighbouring communities will be implemented, while promoting knowledge sharing among communities and other stakeholders outside the target landscapes.
According to the project proposal, once strategic interventions regarding capacity enhancement have been established, the second component will support specific EbA activities that are organised and executed to support the implementation of landscape strategies.
This will be achieved through the implementation of a small-grant finance mechanism to address the financial, capacity and adaptation needs.
This component will support a minimum of 30 grants that will implement “soft engineering” ecosystem restoration actions.
This will be implemented in critical ecosystems to reduce vulnerability of ecosystem services and increase resilience of local communities.
Additionally, successful EbA requires financial incentives for communities and the project will support small-scale community-based enterprises that promote biodiversity conservation goals.
These may include bee-keeping for honey production, tree-planting activities, sustainable enterprise development from bush encroachment, agro-tourism, use of medical herbs and production of handicrafts.
The third component will support learning and knowledge-management activities with the aim to capture and disseminate lessons learned and to influence policy.
Overall, the project will increase the capacity, skills and livelihood alternatives of communities, which in turn will diversify and stabilise local economies, thus creating new possibilities for sustainable growth under changing climatic conditions.
By the end of the project there will be a greatly increased supply of products/benefits from natural ecosystems within the eight targeted landscapes.
ELLANIE SMIT
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