Resilience to disasters for sustainable development: UNECE taking action to protect lives and livelihoods

This document is introduced as a toolkit for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction by the Parties to the UNECE conventions. In this document, UNECE commits to help United Nations Member States better implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted in March 2015 in Japan and reports on its activities in relation to disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the context of the United Nations Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience.

The document reports on: (i) the Water Convention and related pilot projects intended to prevent, control and reduce transboundary impacts resulting from floods and from unilaterally decided flood protection measures, such as dams; (ii) the Housing and Land Management Programme, aimed at addressing disaster risk prevention and mitigation in cities by integrating and mainstreaming DRR into relevant policies and building standards through capacity-building, regional forums and urban planning guidelines for DRR; (iii) the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) and its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (Protocol on SEA), which provide a set of requirements for a formal process to put in place measures to prevent, reduce and control significant adverse environmental impacts; (iv) the obligation for Parties to the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) and its Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR), to disseminate all relevant information that would help the public take measures to prevent or lessen harm in the event of an imminent threat to human health or the environment, and the related activities developed to raise awareness and strengthen national capacity for disaster preparedness and risk reduction in 14 UNECE countries; (v) the work accomplished under the Industrial Accidents Convention to prevent, prepare for and respond to industrial accidents, especially those with transboundary consequences; (vi) the provision of official statistics to provide information on the impacts of disasters for risk management; and (vii) the joint programme with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) intended to implement a very comprehensive programme of work to monitor the state of forests and develop sound policies and tools for their sustainable management.

The document also provides a map of the fires-, floods-, landslides- and earthquakes-prone areas in the UNECE region.