Adaptation in Practice

Thursday 21 August
Afternoon Seminar

Convenors: Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Swedish Water House Cluster Group on Climate, Water and Vulnerability, Department for International Development, United Kingdom (DFID), European Investment Bank (EIB) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Event Summary and Conclusions

Whilst our knowledge of the scale of climate change impacts on water is increasing, there remains a relative vacuum of knowledge about how to adapt our river basins and water management to cope with the change.  The purpose of this seminar was therefore to begin to provide quantitative case studies from four continents to demonstrate the social, economic and ecological benefits of effective adaptation measures, which include the establishment and strengthening of river basin management institutions, revision of water allocations, changes in agricultural techniques and crops, floodplain restoration and flood risk mitigation.
The seminar was convened by WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), Swedish Water House Cluster Group on Climate, Water and Vulnerability, Department for International Development, United Kingdom (DFID), European Investment Bank (EIB) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
The main messages from the seminar were :

1. Strengthen water-relevant institutions. Climate-smart local, regional, and national water management institutions are essential for adaptation.
2. Develop “ecosystem-as-infrastructure” solutions. Invest in ecosystems as adaptation tools. They will be cheap, scalable, will not limit future adaptation options and deliver multiple benefits.
3. Adaptation-smart climate mitigation. Care must be taken to fully assess the impacts of climate mitigation infrastructure measures on water resources and ecosystems so as not to result in maladaptation.
4. Socio-economic benefits.  Successful examples of self help adaptation strategies relied on visible and relatively immediate socio-economic benefits.
5. Don’t wait for models.  Learn by doing based on best current knowledge.
6. Upscaling and mainstreaming adaptation strategies are difficult but vital.
7. Funding predictability is just as important as the scale of funding.

Seminar Programme              13:30-17:30, Room K1

Chairs:  Dr. Li Lifeng, WWF International, Switzerland and Guy Howard, DFID, United Kingdom