A newly launched website by the Coral Triangle Initiative is expected to strengthen climate change adaptation projects by linking project developers with funders.
The Adaptation... [show full news item]
A newly launched website by the Coral Triangle Initiative is expected to strengthen climate change adaptation projects by linking project developers with funders.
The Adaptation Marketplace website (adaptationmarketplace.org), established last month, hopes to fill the gap between funding sources and projects on the ground, particularly in the Coral Triangle area, the global center of marine biodiversity that covers a six million-square-kilometer area spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands.
Major investments in adaptation programs are needed to help an estimated 120 million people in the Coral Triangle area to deal with the impacts of climate change.
A number of funding sources are available for Coral Triangle countries to achieve their regional and national plans of action.
However, investors are facing challenges in allocating funds due to a lack of information and understanding of regional, national, and local adaptation priorities, said WWF Coral Triangle Global Initiative leader Lida Pet Soede.
On the other hand, project developers like private operators, communities, researchers, public authorities and the government, are facing difficulties accessing and understanding the requirements for unlocking funds to support climate adaptation projects.
“NGOs and small community adaptation projects have a hard time finding financial support to implement activities on climate change. We typically go to the same type of donors, like foundations supporting biodiversity or conservation. But there’s little information available on climate adaptation funds,” said Lida.
“Funding is available though various organizations and brilliant climate adaptation project ideas are abundant, but the challenge is how to connect both sides,” Lida went on.
“This program would open up opportunities for more funding, even for communities or companies, or individual villages helped by NGOs,” she said. The program has been jointly developed by the Coral Triangle Initiative in cooperation with EcoAdapt, with support from USAID and the Coral Triangle Support Partnership.
“The Adaptation Marketplace was envisioned to become a platform for more innovative thinking and creative partnerships on climate change adaptation,” she said.
On the website, funders will be connected to project developers using matchmaking criteria in a streamlined and interactive forum. There are “project search” and “funder search” options on the site. Project developers can find funders through information presented in bulleted, easy-to-read pointers.
Funders can also find suitable projects to finance. The projects are aligned with existing frameworks, including the national and regional plans of action and development plans of Coral Triangle countries, as well as the national adaptation program of action.
Lida spoke of the marketplace launching some projects in the coming months. “We hope to have two projects in the pipeline in the next two months, so we will start seeing the benefit of using marketplace. I’ve targeted that by October we will have one or two projects already submitted to donors,” Lida said.
The two projects will be developed in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, respectively.
“We’re still discussing with the ministry and some NGOs on what they want to focus on. They want to help fishing communities become better stewards for the environment in order to have food security, so they will not have to deal with climate change taking away their fish,” Lida said.
According to her, many climate adaptation funds were not yet flowing into projects. “The funds are already there, but in order to make the decision to invest it in projects, there’s been a lot of delays. So, we’re now focusing on one particular climate adaptation fund from the UK, amounting between US$2 million to 5 million,” she said, adding that the fund would be used to finance the likes of the two projects in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands.
The website also helps to improve the capacity of NGOs or communities to write proposals for financial accountability, as well as demonstrate the capacity to measure the impact of the projects.
For full story go to: http://www.thejakartapost.com/bali-daily/2013-03-30/website-help-climate-projects-coral-triangle.html[hide full news item]
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How can marine protected area (MPA) networks be designed to better achieve multiple objectives regarding fisheries management, biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation simultaneously? Join Alison Green and Alan White of The Nature Conservancy for a discussion of the recent... [show full news item]
How can marine protected area (MPA) networks be designed to better achieve multiple objectives regarding fisheries management, biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation simultaneously? Join Alison Green and Alan White of The Nature Conservancy for a discussion of the recent development of new design principles for this purpose.
The panelists will provide an overview of two recent efforts to provide better advice regarding this issue:
Results of a newly released technical report by Fernandes et al (2012) entitled Biophysical principles for designing resilient networks for marine protected areas to integrate fisheries, biodiversity and climate change objectives in the Coral Triangle. See the attached executive summary and full report.
Ongoing to work to summarize best available information regarding connectivity of coral reef and coastal pelagic fishes, and implications for size, spacing and location of MPAs in tropical marine ecosystems. While both of these studies originated in the Coral Triangle, the results are general and can be applied in other areas.
If you are unable to participate in the live webinar, a recording will be available for streaming or download at www.reefresilience.org, under the “Events” tab on the home page, a few days after the event.
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