Ecosystem-based adaptation handbook
EbA is based on “the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change”. People’s wellbeing and security depend on equitable, continuous and environmentally sound access to the benefits that forests, wetlands, savannas and sustainable agricultural lands provide. For the most part, these benefits or ecosystem services certainly play a key role in climate change adaptation either by
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providing people with food and clean water – thus reducing vulnerabilities and boosting livelihoods - or
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by regulating climate and controlling floods, thereby weakening actual or potential climate-related hazards.
This handbook is meant as a step-by-step guide for setting up an EbA intervention. It promotes an integrated approach to EbA with the ultimate goal of “building resilience of socio-ecological systems.” Additionally, the handbook introduces the reader to the building blocks of an EbA strategy and how these can be developed.