By Blue Solutions and IUCN Panorama | Solutions Programme
African Solutions in a Rapidly Changing World: Nature-based solutions to climate change by African innovators in protected areas
As the world grapples with the urgency of addressing the evident and predicted impacts of climate change, there are many communities whose lives and livelihoods are being affected on a daily basis. In Africa, characterised by its exceptional biological richness and high natural resource dependency, the outlook is particularly concerning. The IPCC findings not only identify this region as one where the rate of climate change is faster than predicted, but also as one of the most vulnerable, due to its limited adaptive capacity.
Yet, there remains hope for the application of effective responses. With the experience of coping with unpredictable and highly variable environments over millennia, and the advantage of many intact and diverse ecosystems, many communities and countries have accumulated strategies and mechanisms for dealing with uncertainty – in particular through ecosystem and community-based approaches rooted in local institutions, and through relying on protected areas as a holistic land-management tool. By drawing on these experiences and the inherent resilience of natural ecosystems when effectively governed and managed, it is possible to highlight a range of responses that can be more widely applied to reduce vulnerability and increase natural and community resilience.
This volume of case studies from Africa presents clear evidence that there are many effective, naturebased approaches being employed in and through protected areas to deal with the day to day reality of changing environments and climates and all of the complex interactions at play. By understanding where and how these work, a suite of solutions and building blocks of successful approaches can be drawn out that can be more widely shared and applied. These case studies offer hope that effective solutions to the climate change dilemma can be addressed through local responses that also achieve mutual benefits for biodiversity conservation and community resilience.
Inger Andersen
Director General, IUCN
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