Private Enterprise and Financial Markets > Environment > Disaster Risk Management
Adaptation to Climate Change and Managing Disaster Risk in the Caribbean and South-East Asia
By CDERA (05/04, En)
Small island and coastal nations of the world have long been recognized as being among the most likely to be affected by the potential impacts of global climate change. Such nations may be found in both the Caribbean and Asian regions. These regions share other commonalities as well, such as tropical climates and, to some extent, the hazards to which these countries are vulnerable.
The inextricable linkage between climate change and disaster management emerges from the potential of the former to result in an increased frequency and severity of hydro-meteorological hazards and the associated increase in risk faced by countries as a whole and by vulnerable communities in particular. Within the Caribbean, the most visible of these impacts has been the increasing vulnerability to severe storms and the increased frequency and intensity of flood events. In Asia, the severity of weather extremes associated with the El Niņo phenomenon has been apparent. Recent events have resulted in significant social, economic and environmental losses. But, the more gradual?yet nevertheless potentially as catastrophic?impacts expected from climate change include enhanced coastal and beach erosion; loss of land and property; dislocation of people; reduced resilience of coastal ecosystems and hence reduced viability for fisheries; and the bleaching and destruction of coral reefs. For the island states of both the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, which depend heavily on tourism, agriculture and fisheries for their livelihood, these impacts could be ruinous. For many countries, increased vulnerability to water shortages due to climate change is also a very significant concern.
The need for a comprehensive integrated approach to natural hazard risk management that would combine the broader climate change and risk management agendas, as well as the urgency to advance the mainstreaming of disaster management and climate change, resulted in the convening of the Seminar on Climate Change and Severe Weather Events in the Caribbean and Asia, held in Barbados in July, 2003. Specialists from both the Caribbean and Southeast Asia were brought together to discuss current adaptation strategies to severe weather events and to explore possible strategies for addressing climate change in the critical sectors of water resources, tourism, agriculture and fisheries. These sectors were examined in each region with a view toward sharing a range of experiences and facilitating inter-regional information exchange.
This publication brings together good practices identified through presentations and case studies prepared for the seminar, with a focus on practices that are both relevant and transferable between the regions. It is our hope that through this seminar, sustainable networks have been formed to carry on this mission long after the seminar?s completion and that this paper will provide a useful departure point for future cooperation between the regions.
Last updated: 06/12/07
