Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Namakwa District Municipality

By Gavin Chewe, ACDI Master's student, class of 2016

Amanda Bourne, who works for Conservation South Africa, presented her work on Ecosystem Based Adaptation (EbA) on the 14t^h of April at the ACDI. Conservation South Africa works to improve rural communities’ resilience to climate change in South Africa and is a part of a wider Conservation International project funded by the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), under the International Climate Initiative (IKI), in partnership with the Provincial Government of the Northern Cape, the Namakwa District Municipality, the 6 Namakwa Local Municipalities, SANBI,, and the Department of Environment and Nature Conservation.

The objective of the project is to implement EbA in marine, terrestrial and coastal regions to improve livelihoods and conserve biodiversity in the face of climate change. South Africa, together with Brazil and the Philippines, is a party within a five year pilot programme that aims to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of people vulnerable to climate change. I am interested to see what a cross-cultural and international collaboration such as this will mean for future projects.

EbA makes uses of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall strategy for climate change adaptation. It includes the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems that provide the services that help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. This is done by increasing the capacity of communities to deal with the adverse effects of climate change.

In South Africa, Conservation South Africa pilot projects are focused on the succulent Karoo and Cape floral kingdom. The Namakwa District Municipality contains 105 distinct vegetation types. The Succulent Karoo biodiversity hotspot alone is home to more than 6000 plant species, 250 bird species, 78 different mammals, 132 species of reptile and amphibian, and an unknown number of insect species.

Activities are tracked over time to monitor their cost effectiveness as well as their impact, and results are shared locally.

The first step in planning for adaptation we learnt, was that a climate change vulnerability assessment has to be undertaken to identify appropriate actions to take in response to the effects of climate change. The approach used by Conservation South Africa to carry out a vulnerability assessment undertook the following the steps:

• The identification of already existing vulnerabilities
• Looked at climate projections for 2050-2100
• Assessed ecosystem vulnerability
• Assessed socio-economic vulnerability
• The identification of priority areas for implementing Ecosystem Based Adaptation
• The design of simple and replaceable vulnerability index

In looking at climate change scenarios, Conservation South Africa used the MPI, MIROC and CSIRO climate models. What was observed, was that future scenarios indicated temperature increases for the regions under investigation. However, the climate models indicated rainfall patterns showed greater variability. The question raised by Conservation South Africa under the climate change scenarios thus concerned what proactive adaptation measures were required to produce actionable results. In addition, under the climate scenarios presented, the following questions were raised:

• What would the impacts be of changing climatic conditions on local biome stability? – because climate change introduced elements of risk and uncertainty
• How would water related ecological infrastructures be affected, and what would need to be enhanced to enable climate resilience?
• What infrastructure would be needed to ensure that biodiversity loss is kept to a minimum?

In assessing socio-economic vulnerability, the following was undertaken:-

• Population densities and settlement locations within the Namakwa District
•  A general poverty measurement was generated in order to identify the proportion and location of low-income households
• Their specific levels of environmental dependency was assessed with regards to access to groundwater resources and communal land

This helped to generate an integrated social priority map, which identified a set of social priorities for the communities affected within the Namakwa District. Also identified were local municipal capacity to deal with the effects of climate change, drought and flood risk in the areas under study, the potential of sea level rise at coastal zones and potential changes in biome stability in the region, as well as the geographical climate resilient features of the area.

As a result of the above ecosystem based adaptation measures undertaken, a number of pilot projects were implemented which included:

• Wetland restoration projects
• Rangeland restoration
• Livestock improvement
• Planned grazing
• Capacity building for farmers
• Community based monitoring
• Diversification of livelihoods using indigenous knowledge systems
• Soil erosion control
• Reduction of fire hazards in the region
• Social research projects on an ad hoc annual basis, which included regular workshops
• Ecological and research – which included revegetation studies

The strategic priorities identified as a result of ecosystem based adaptation approach were that environmentally-friendly approaches were needed to enable affected communities to return to the land by educating them and creating an awareness of climate change and building local capacity. This would include improving water infrastructure, enhancing disaster risk reduction strategies and sustaining local livelihoods.

The next step of the Conservation South Africa project based on EbA would be to improve livestock and planned grazing schemes in the region, continue research into climate change impacts as well as assess future adaptation options for groundwater, heat stress on affected communities and what social and institutional measures can be implemented to relieve the pressure of climate change and on affected communities in the region.

Conservation South Africa is also co-creating climate change response projects with local communities and municipalities as well as their funding partners. They also hope to use the lessons learnt in applying ecosystem adaptation methodology to draw up the Northern Cape Climate Adaption Strategy as well as replicate the approach used in the Northern Cape to draw up similar adaption plans for South Africa’s provinces and other African countries. 

For me, EbA is grassroots, community-based participatory approach that involves all relevant stakeholders in the adaptation process, and this pilot project would greatly benefit from increased funding and eventual rollout across the sub-Saharan Africa region. The farmers, most vulnerable to climate change are able to be proactive and be actively involved in the decision-making processes that affect them, and that bodes well for future adaptation projects on the continent. In addition, the natural environment can also be utilised in a way that enables conservation efforts and increases the resilience of local communities.