International Science – Policy workshop 2014

Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation: guiding development policies in the 21st century

Four years after its first workshop held in Bonn, 2010, which led to the publication “The Role of Ecosystems in Disaster Risk Reduction” (2013), the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR), the Centre for Natural Resources and Development (CNRD) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) is inviting researchers, policy makers and practitioners to a Science-Policy workshop to share success stories and discuss how the science and evidence-base of ecosystem-based DRR/CCA could more effectively inform and influence development decisions.

The PEDRR/LIPI/CNRD International 2014 workshop is being held at a time when three major global policy agendas are being negotiated, namely the post-2015 global framework on disaster risk reduction (HFA-2), the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, and the post-2015 global climate change agreement. Discussions and outputs will have clear relevance to these major policy processes. The workshop will also aim to identify a research agenda for the next 10 years which would have direct relevance to policy and decision-making.

The workshop will examine how to maximize integration of DRR and CCA through ecosystem based approaches and how these integrated strategies can help inform policies and programming that aim to build local and national resilience to disasters. While the inter-linkages between climate change and DRR are now widely acknowledged, these two domains continue to develop in silos with different stakeholders, expert groups, funding mechanisms and processes. One way to promote the integration of climate change adaptation (CCA) and DRR is through the adoption of ecosystem-based approaches. Ecosystem-based approaches to DRR and CCA integrate the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services into an overall strategy to reduce people’s vulnerability and increase their resilience to natural hazards and climate change. They refer to the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems to provide services that help people cope with and adapt to natural hazards, climate variability, and impacts of climate change.

Abstracts can be submitted on the following four thematic areas:

1) Evidence and economics of Eco-DRR/CCA

2) Decision making tools for Eco-DRR/CCA

3) Innovative institutional arrangements and policies for Eco-DRR/CCA

4) Cutting edge scientific research and technical innovations on EcoDRR/CCA

The deadline for abstract submission is 10 February, 2014.

Information about the acceptance of your abstract will be provided by 1 March 2014. The workshop will have a maximum size of 50 participants and only abstracts of direct relevance to the four themes described above will be considered.