This toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into the coastal and marine ecosystem management in the coastal sub-region of South Asia including Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
 

The coastal sub-region of South Asia including Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka harbours some of the world’s most significant coastal and marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass meadows, river deltas and estuaries. They play a crucial role in reducing the effects of natural disasters. The paper reviews the status of coastal and marine ecosystem management in the region to enable adoption of an integrated approach to ecosystem management for effective risk reduction.

The report outlines 58 research programmes based on group and panel discussions at the national consultation cum stakeholders workshop held in May 2012 in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. These research programmes are expected to enable conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity in the East Godavari River Estuarine Ecosystem region in Andhra Pradesh through developing an integrated management plan for the region, restoring threatened species and their habitats, and improving livelihoods of local communities.

The ‘WISE-UP to climate’ project aims to demonstrate the value of natural infrastructure as a ‘nature-based solution’ for climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Within the Tana River Basin, both natural and built infrastructure provide livelihood benefits for people. Understanding the interrelationships between the two types of infrastructure is a prerequisite for sustainable water resources development and management. This is particularly true as pressures on water resources intensify and the impacts of climate change increase.

“The Langebaan lagoon is the only non-estuarine tidal lagoon in South Africa. It is situated on the West Coast, approximately 100 kilometres north of Cape Town. The mouth of the lagoon, on its northern side, is entered via Saldanha Bay1. The lagoon is a highly legislated area. It was proclaimed a marine reserve in 1973 in terms of the Sea Fisheries Act2 and in 1985 it was proclaimed part of the Langebaan National Park, whose name was later changed to the West Coast National Park.

Indonesia, as an archipelagic nation, has about 150 million people (60%) living in coastal areas. Such communities are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of change, in the form of sea level rise and stronger, more intense storms. Population growth in coastal areas will also increase the disaster risk mainly because of climate change-related effects such as flooding, droughts, and tidal floods. This study examines the dynamic changes of urban population and urban villages in three decadal periods, from 1990, 2000, to 2010.

This study aimed to link land cover/use change to water quality in an important water supply coastal catchment. The approach followed a spatial and temporal analysis of historical catchment land use change to assess how changes influenced water quality and river flow in the Touws and Duiwe Rivers, southwestern Cape, South Africa. Each sub-catchment has unique characteristics which influence land use and water quality and the purpose was to analyse each one separately.

Coastal grab refers to the contested appropriation of coastal (shore and inshore) space and resources by outside interests. This paper explores the phenomenon of coastal grabbing and the effects of such appropriation on community-based conservation of local resources and environment. The approach combines social-ecological systems analysis with socio-legal property rights studies.

This report details the programme of work on marine and coastal biodiversity under the convention on biological diversity that aims to assist the implementation of the convention at the national, regional and global levels.The report specifically details the operational objectives and priority activities within five key programmes, including:implementation of integrated marine and coastal area management (IMCAM)marine and coastal living resourcesmarine and coastal protected areasmariculturealien species and genotypes.Highlights of the report include:IMCAM is a participatory process for deci