Steward Priority Zones
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CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY & ADAPTATION DESKTOP STUDY : STEWARD PRIORITY ZONES February 2013 Nimba Highlands (Source: UNESCO) Table of Contents ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................................................... ii 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 PURPOSE OF THE ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 APPROACH AND METHODS ..................................................................................................................... 2 2. DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT .............................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 ECONOMIC CONTEXT .............................................................................................................................. 3 2.2 SOCIAL CONTEXT .................................................................................................................................... 6 2.3 ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.4 NON-CLIMATE STRESSES ....................................................................................................................... 12 3. CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS AND VULNERABILITY ........................................................................................... 13 3.1 IMPACTS OF CONCERN .......................................................................................................................... 13 3.2 CLIMATE VULNERABILITY ...................................................................................................................... 15 3.3 AT-RISK SECTORS ................................................................................................................................. 16 4. ADAPTATION PLANNING , PRIORITIES , AND PROGRAMS .................................................................................. 20 4.1 ADAPTATION PLANNING WITHIN THE STEWARD COUNTRIES AND PRIORITY ZONES ................................... 20 4.2 ADAPTATION PRIORITIES WITHIN THE STEWARD COUNTRIES .................................................................. 21 4.3 SUMMARY OF ONGOING ADAPTATION PROGRAMS .................................................................................. 23 5. GAPS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................................. 26 ANNEX A. CURRENT ADAPTATION PROGRAMS .................................................................................................. 31 ANNEX B. PROPOSED ADAPTATION PRIORITY ACTIONS ...................................................................................... 36 ANNEX C. DESKTOP STUDY TERMS OF REFERENCE ............................................................................................. 41 ANNEX D. POTENTIAL PZ 3 WONEGIZI (L IBERIA ) AND ZIAMA (GUINEA ) .............................................................. 43 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................... 45 i Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessment: STEWARD Priority Zones ACRONYMS AMZ Agroforestry Management Zones AUDER United Actors for Rural Development (AUDER) CCAA Climate Change Adaptation Africa (IDRC) CC-DARE Climate Change Adaptation and Development Initiative CEGENS Centre de Gestion de l'Environnement des Monts Nimba et Simandou, Environmental Management Authority for Mounts Nimba and Simandou (Guinea) CILSS Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel CO 2 Carbon Dioxide DFID Department for International Development (United Kingdom) DEFRA Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (United Kingdom) ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States ENSO El Niño–Southern Oscillation EPAL Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia FFI Flora and Fauna International GCM General Circulation Model GHG Greenhouse Gas GDP Gross Domestic Product GEF Global Environment Facility GIS Geographic Information System GPS Global Positioning System HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus IDP Internally Displaced Person IDRC International Development Research Center (Canada) IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development ITCZ Intertropical Convergence Zone IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature LDC Least Developed Country LCDF Least Developed Country Fund (GEF) MAEEEF Ministère de l’agriculture, de l’élevage, de l’environnement, des eaux et forets (Guinea) MEEF Ministère de l’Environnement des Eaux et Forêts (Côte d’Ivoire) MMGE Ministère des mines, de la géologie et de l’environnement (Guinea) MRU Mano River Union MTA Ministry of Transport and Aviation (Sierra Leone) NAPA National Adaptations Programs of Action NGO Non-Governmental Organization NTFP Non-Timber Forest Product OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OKNP Outamba-Kilimi National Park PES Payment for Ecosystem Services PPP Purchasing Power Parity PRIDE Programme Intégré pour le Développement de l’Entreprise en Guinée PZ Priority Zone ROECCR Regional Office of Environment and Climate Change Response (USAID/West Africa) SMFG Société de Fer de Guinée STEWARD Sustainable and Thriving Environments for West Africa Regional Development SWAC Sahel and West Africa Club UNDP United Nations Development Program UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ii Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessment: STEWARD Priority Zones UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization USAID United States Agency for International Development USFS United States Forest Service USG United States Government USGS United States Geological Survey WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene iii Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessment: STEWARD Priority Zones 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND The Sustainable and Thriving Environments for West Africa Regional Development (STEWARD) program is a forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods program focusing on transboundary Priority Zones (PZs) in the Upper Guinean Forest ecosystem (Figure 1). The Upper Guinean Forest is one of West Africa’s eight maJor biomes and originally covered an estimated 1,265,000km 2 across six West African states – Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo. It has an estimated 9,000 species of vascular plants, including a high percentage (25%) of endemic species. Most of this ecosystem has been converted to agricultural uses, with only about 10% of its original area remaining. The STEWARD landscape continues to be degraded and fragmented by unsustainable agricultural practices, mining, and other threats (USAID2008b). Figure 1. STEWARD program priority zones. PZ 1, upper left: Sierra Leone (Outamba-Kilimi National Park), Guinea (Madina Oula, Soya and Ouré Kaba sub-prefectures); and, PZ 2, lower right: Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire (Mount Nimba), Liberia (Nimba Nature Reserve). STEWARD was conceptualized in 2005-2006 as USAID’s regional program for conserving the biodiversity of the Upper Guinean Forest of West Africa, and it is currently (2011-2015) in its third phase – the ‘Implementation Phase’. STEWARD is funded by the USAID/West Africa (WA) Regional Office of Environment and Climate Change Response (ROECCR) and is implemented by the U.S. Forest Service Office of International Programs. The Development ObJective of the STEWARD Program is phrased as 1 Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessment: STEWARD Priority Zones Resilience of biodiverse ecosystems and human communities in target areas is maintained and strengthened and contributes directly to the ROECCR development obJective. The overall goal of STEWARD is to enhance economic opportunity, peace-building and well-being through the sustainable management of forest landscapes in targeted priority zones (PZ) in the Upper Guinea Forest Ecosystem and has three obJectives: 1. Conserve biodiversity and improve rural livelihoods in critical transboundary landscapes in the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem; 2. Produce harmonized policies and legal frameworks for natural resource management in a regional context; and, 3. Contribute to sub-regional and national strategic plans on climate change in the Mano River Union states. The STEWARD program conforms to USAID’s Biodiversity Code and enables USAID/WA to meet its commitments under the ‘biodiversity earmark’. STEWARD’s site-based work focuses in PZs that were identified based on their “high” biological significance; their transboundary locations; their potential for integrating conservation, livelihoods and natural resource management (NRM); and, because of their political, economic and social significance. These PZs are the subJect of this climate vulnerability and adaptation (V & A) assessment (Figure 1): PZ 1: Sierra Leone (Outamba-Kilimi National Park), Guinea (Madina Oula, Soya and Ouré Kaba sub-prefectures);