Inception phase | PANORAMA

Setting the framework for successful restoration activities

The Hermannshütte in the year 1850

Emschergenossenschaft

Phoenix in 2000 (left) and in 2010 (right)

www.wikipedia.de

Detailed plan of the new lake and its shores

Emschergenossenschaft

Excavation work to construct the lake

Emschergenossenschaft

Creation of the new river bed for the Emscher stream flowing parallel to the lake shore

Emschergenossenschaft

The implementation process began with the founding of the PHOENIX-See Entwicklungsgesellschaft (EG ) - as a subsidiary of the municipal utility company - to manage this large-scale project. An external project leader was employed and expert engineering offices were contracted. The EG was involved on all topics relating to water management of the Emscher and the Pheonix lake. From the governmental side, a large number of agencies were involved in the process. Public participation was realized through formal and informal meetings and discussions. Of importance were also the feasibility and assessment studies initiated in 2001 to improve the design of the solution and convince decision makers that the risks involved were acceptable. The plan was finally approved in 2005, with digging operations starting in 2006. A year later, the new wastewater sewer was finished and in 2009 the renatured Emscher started to flow in its new bed. Finally, the lake was flooded in 2010 and officially opened in 2011. The construction of houses along the lake started in this period and in 2013 the Entwicklungsgesellschaft “delivered” the lake back to the city of Dortmund.

There were a few conflicting goals which needed to be resolved in order to begin with the restoration activities, including a conflict for space. A compromise had to be found between ecological (size of the lake) and economical (size of the real estate area) demands. The good relations, enthusiasm, and belief of the actors in the project helped to reach agreement on this conflict of interests, and concerning upcoming additional costs and risks.

It was important to conduct feasibility and assessment studies to improve the design of the solution and convince decision makers that the risks involved were acceptable. As huge amounts of soil had to be moved, which is very energy consuming and expensive, good soil management was very important. A large amount could be left on the building site for modelling the embankment areas and the terraces for the housing.

Inception phase

Implementation

Local

Securing sufficient funds for a multi-purpose EbA solution

Partly built up new real estate properties along the lake shore

Nadine Gerner, Emschergenossenschaft

As this solution serves various goals and meets several objectives, it was possible to secure sufficient funding from diverse parties, domains and funding bodies to cover the entire implementation of the project. In the case of the creation of Lake Phoenix, this included funding for water management from the water board; funding for ecology from the ecological funding program by the federal state; funding for urban development from etc. The water board, for instance, provided the amount of money that was already budgeted for the construction of a flood retention basin. This basin was not needed anymore, as the lake solution already provided the required flood retention function. Some additional potential funding sources were not even used in the end, because it would have slowed down the marketing of the real estate and would have tied the project to certain restrictions, which were not desired by the decision-makers.

Given that the solution serves various goals, funding was able to be secured from a range of parties, sectors and sources. The marketing of real estate properties along the new lake shore was a financial aspect considered from the project’s start in order to make the project implementation financially partly self-supporting. The project consortium took great care of timing, for instance regarding the deadlines of the various funding programs.

Establishing the diverse benefits provided by a solution is an important step in the planning process, as it highlights the various sectors and stakeholders who can potentially be involved in and benefit from the solution. Drawing attention to the potential benefits, and underlying this with a sound scientific evidence base with which to approach these parties, can facilitate the successful generation of funds from a range of sources. Innovative financing approaches can also act as ‘self-sustaining’ and generate funds during the course of the project to fund some of the foreseen activities.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Review phase

Entirety

Local

Identification of EbA measures

Identificación de medidas AbE y medidas robustas

will be added later

The objective of this building block is to define how to identify the EbA measures to be implemented in the field in order to increase the resilience of ecosystems and population to the adverse effects of climate change. This is important because it explores "how" and "with what" we are going to respond to the identified vulnerability. The identification of criteria for the definition, prioritization and principles for the selection of EbA measures is a tool that allowed clarifying doubts and to reflect, align and define concepts based on the review of relevant documentation, field observations, interviews and discussions with local actors and researchers. The set of criteria was organized into two sections (see gallery). It was first validated by SERNANP and experts and afterwards applied for the prioritization of the EbA measures. Once selected, the proposed measures were validated by the community. We have experienced that it is important not only to validate the results, but also to prioritize the measures in a participatory manner with the communities.

Have a set of criteria for the selection of EbA measures that allows a prioritization of possible measures and helps to exclude those that are not EbA.
Commitment of local actors who will participate in implementation and decision-making.
Prioritized actions should focus on ecosystem services that are key to the livelihoods of local populations.
SERNANP and communities working in a coordinated manner.

When defining EbA measures, the interlinkages between the population and ecosystem services in the area should be considered. If we choose to work with ecosystems that do not provide ecosystem services for the livelihoods of the target communities, the interventions will not be sustainable. Furthermore, social structures and the strength of local organizations are important.
It is important that from the very beginning, the project was considered part of SERNANPs activities. While the project has a limited time span in the area, SERNANP is a permanent actor. Once the project ends, SERNANP will be in charge to support, advice and monitor the activities carried out by the communities.
It requires commitment and willingness of the actors to establish agreements for the sustainability of the processes.

Inception phase

Local

Climate Change Adaptation in the Peruvian Andes: implementing no-regret measure…

Vulnerability assessment of the protected area

Proyecciones en el tiempo

Proyecto EbA Montaña Perú

This building block is an essential part of the EbA approach and was carried out prior to the implementation of EbA measures in the Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve. It was considered important to understand the vulnerability to climate change of ecosystems and of populations living in the reserve and whose livelihoods depend directly on the reserve´s ecosystem services.

The objective was to determine the level of sensitivity and the ability to cope with the adverse effects of climate change and extreme events using present observations and future scenarios. Based on the results of these vulnerability and impact studies, the districts with higher vulnerability of ecosystems and ecosystem services -if current management practices would be continued – were identified.

This information served not only to select pilot areas but also to confirm that previously identified EbA measures were adequate to increase resilience of ecosystems to climate change.

Availability and access to necessary information, both scientific (climatic, hydrological, etc.) and field information.
Time: the study required time for data collection and analysis.
Coordinated work of the actors: SERNANP and Communities

Knowing and understanding how vulnerable ecosystems and populations are to climate change is absolutely necessary in order to identify the most appropriate measures to reduce this vulnerability in the future.
There is no single way to measure vulnerability. The main lesson is that not only a scientific study is required, but a complete and agile and participatory process that generates the quantitative and qualitative information that is needed.
If the study is very expensive or very complex, it is not replicable. It is necessary to evaluate in advance to what extent the study should be carried out.

Planning phase

Inception phase

Local

Learning from Participatory Vulnerability Assessments – key to identifying Ecos…

Top Down - National and International initiative

EcoPeace annual Conference Nov 2016 with government support

Meeting

Basin commissioners and representatives from around the world at EcoPeace's 2016 conferenct

Top-Down is the process to create broader political awareness of the issue. It includes advocacy for national and international support. Commonly a concept paper that explains the problem initiates this process with further research to support and document the issues. It is important to appeal to the news media, as their attention is necessary to heighten the political awareness of the issues and to convey the information to the public, resulting in the creation of a broader public demand for action. Media attention mobilizes national and international engagement and can foster domestic and international resource mobilization. In our experience, public opinion plays a decisive role in dictating the political agenda to local leaders as well as national decision makers.

Strong community engagement and public initiatives create the demand for political action. It is important to create an environment in which it is politically safe to discuss the solutions, if the solutions are truly in the national self-interests then politicians will more easily embrace the change and even lead it. Good relations to media and the international community can facilitate government involvement.

In an unsteady political landscape, environmental issues are held hostage, used as pawns in the overarching political conflict and within the framework of the official peace process. In order for the initiatives to produce a real change, a careful balance must be maintained: to achieve the explicit approval of officials without losing momentum to the tedium of politics.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Bottom Up - Grassroot initiative

Community involvement

Children at EcoPeace

Local stakeholders learn to become environmental leaders. They learn about their water reality. When people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet and engage with similar groups of stakeholders from other communities across the conflict. The common ground for these cross conflict meetings is the safeguard of the shared watershed and the communities engage in productive meetings to identify solutions. Together they identify projects that speak to the self-interest of both sides. Through this process, the communities gain the capacity to advance solutions even within a turbulent political environment. In most cases, the combination of a strong youth program and outspoken adult leadership creates the political will of mayors and other municipal leaders to get involved.

The local community's leadership needs a respected leader from the local community to provide the best leadership. It is important that a regional project manager with strong project experience mentors the local leader.

Local leadership from the local community is especially important in a conflict situation to secure the trust that the leader acts in the community’s self-interest. Walks in the nature and along shared water bodies provide the best opportunity for communities to understand their water reality. Only when people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet other communities. Community members voice an appreciation and need for an organization as EcoPeace to facilitate cross border meetings to ensure that the meetings provide a “safe-place” for the local communities to discuss issues effecting cross-border and neighbor communities. Participants were free to talk about their realities while using constructive means to seek solutions. Meetings and collaboration on environmental issues delivers a capacity to create and sustain strong networks of cross-border communication with long-term impact beyond the cross-border initiative.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Ecoranger programme and DEA land user incentive programme

The DEA NRM land user incentive programme, along with co finance from CSA donors, allows CSA to fund alien clearing in priority catchments. Eco rangers then employed to work with farmers, on rotation grazing, they control grazing of livestock and ensure rotational grazing is enforced. They keep areas alien free, they help protect cattle through mobile kraaling and also gather data on cattle and biodiversity and monitor veld condition and determine when an area needs to be closed from grazing. They also ensure compliance with rested areas and report those not compliant. They also ensure protection of biodiversity against poaching. Also ecorangers play a crucial role in ensuring that alien invasive plants do not come back and are responsible for pulling out seedlings that grow back. It is their responsibility as well to rehabilitate degraded areas where erosion dongas are beginning to appear. Incentives for land owners include not only ecorangers but also vaccinations and access to markets through auctions. Springs and streams that have dried started flowing again after these approaches have been implemented.

•Traditional leadership as well municipality played a crucial role during implementation, without their support this would not have been successful •A process of community mobilization around the importance of sustainable land management and catchment management •Funding from DEA NRM for wattle clearing allowed rangelands to be made available •Funding by DEA NRM and donor funding for rangelands management by ecorangers ensured non return of wattle as well as ensuring sustainable and product

•Livestock condition improves within one year of this approach. •Market access for rural communities makes a huge difference to livelihoods and their engagement in the programme. •Wattle cleared areas have to be constantly monitored to ensure regrowth is combated. •Community engagement has to be ongoing. •Financial resources are very critical for the implementation of this EbA initiative due to poverty levels in these communities. •Implementation work should be based on indigenus knowledge systems (assisted in the design of the rotational grazing patterns) •The focus on rangelands for the benefit of rural livestock was critical. •Improving benefit of broader community through redmeat market access was key in order to get buyin from the broader community.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Entirety

Local

National

MNI restoration toolkit- Conservation SA

Vulnerability assessments and EbA priority maps integrated into local policy and planning that include an index for monitoring

Vulnerability assessments and EbA priority maps

CSA used the Lets Respond Toolkit and a facilitation resource they have developed to assist with the implementation of the toolkit in order to assist the Alfred Nzo District Municipality in mainstreaming climate change into their district and support the development of an enabling environment for EbA. CSA developed a Vulnerability assessment with the Alfred Nzo District Municipality which included ecological, social and institutional vulnerability to climate change. In the process the layers of vulnerability were translated into GIS and an overarching EbA priority map was developed which guides decision-making within the district. The VA also contains an index which is used to monitor the vulnerability over time. CSA then also assisted the ANDM to develop a Climate Change Response Strategy guided by the VA and the maps in order to develop key adaptation (and mitigation) priorities of which EbA was part. It was critical to then integrate this plan within ANDM and the use of the ANDM climate change committee was integral to this as well as for the monitoring of vulnerability.

Traditional leadership and municipality for planning; existent community of practice around NGO and restoration/conservation work at a catchment level such as the UCP-Programme: district level climate change committee which can assist in mainstreaming climate Change; National level 'Lets respond toolkit' for mainstreaming climate change at LG level support by by SA Local government association; tools and expertise to do VA, GIS EbA maps/ develop an index for monitoring

Lessons from working with lets respond and mainstreaming into local policy and planning: •Raising awareness about climate change and its likely impacts amongst local government decision-makers is really important – so they can see the relevance for their service delivery. It is difficult to address the unknown and usually much easier to address immediate needs and concerns (basic services), so linking climate change to existing activities, priorities, and budgets, and looking at what climate impacts might mean for these things, is really important and really possible. Another thing that helps is linking climate change to areas of responsibility in municipal planning and implementation that are already well understood. We need to mainstream climate change in a very strategic and targeted way into the key planning documents and management tools of the municipality, such as the IDP, and the various sector master plans.

Umzimvubu Partnership Programme

Joint transboundary removal of an invasive plant

Invasive plants occurred on both sides of the Thaya River, which serves as the international boundary and the border between the two national parks. Plants were removed from both sides of the river by staff from the respective parks, and removal of plants took place following their detection by the monitoring effort. When the joint eradication project was originally proposed by Podyjí National Park, staff of Thayatal National Park were sceptical of the efficiency of the efforts to remove the invasive plant based on their knowledge of many unsuccessful eradication attempts in other areas. Thayatal National Park was therefore only willing to invest a small amount of resources initially to test whether the eradication efforts would work. After initial successes, Thayatal National Park contributed resources to conduct more substantial removal measures jointly with Podyjí National Park. As both parks are opposed to the use of pesticides, individual plants needed to be removed by hand and preferably during the adolescent life stages before seeds emerged. Otherwise, seeds could be spread during removal of the adult plants. Nevertheless, mowing measures proved very effective in places of larger stocks.

The removal process had been initiated by Podyjí before establishment of Thayatal National Park, which reduced the effort needed through the joint eradication. Second, geomorphology within the river valley section running through the parks is relatively unfavorable for rapid expansion of the plant. Third, removal of plants by Czech staff on Austrian soil became easier after Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004. Before, border police had to be informed every time staff crossed the border.

A big lesson learned for both National Parks was the need to cooperate across the state border and between the two protected areas to jointly implement nature conservation measures. This especially applied to the removal of invasive species in a river valley that is situated on the border.

Selection of no-regret adaptation measures

Infopoint at the water body accompanying cyclepath – displaying that an adaptation measure brings also benefits for recreation and residential environment

Source: Lippeverband

Given the many uncertainties associated with climate change, political and community support for so-called ‘no-regret’ adaptation measures can often be higher than for alternative approaches whose (cost-)effectiveness depends on the degree of future climate change. The no-regret approach focuses on maximizing positive and minimizing negative aspects delivered by EbA, and selecting actions that yield a range of benefits even in the absence of such change. In the case of the Kamen green-blue-corridor, the ecological improvement of the stream in combination with disconnecting the storm water from surrounding properties was determined to have positive impacts regardless of whether rainfall will increase in the long-term or not. Should rainfall intensify and become more frequent, flood risks will be reduced; if temperatures increase in the summer, the stored water will benefit the mircroclimate. Regardless of climate, however, the EbA measures can be considered as ‘no-regret’ as they create amenity and recreational benefits for the community and visitors, increase awareness levels, contribute to the EU Water Framework Directive and biodiversity conservation, and reduce water discharge fees for local inhabitants.

In order to gain political and public support for such measures, it is key to have sound scientific evidence of the potential benefits which can be created regardless of climate change and to compare these to other approaches. The outcomes of such comparative analyses can be disseminated via targeted awareness raising campaigns to highlight the potential environmental, societal and economic benefits and thereby foster greater recognition of the value of EbA, increase public support, and lead to

A range of obstacles can serve as potential barriers to implementing no-regret EbA actions, such as (i) financial and technology constraints; (ii) lack of information and transaction costs at the micro-level; and (iii) institutional and legal constraints (as outlined on the European Union’s Climate-Adapt platform). It is thus important to conduct assessments of the (cost-)effectiveness of the no-regret option as well as of other available measures in order to facilitate informed decision-making and steer appropriate communication campaigns. In Kamen, such comparative data was gathered and presented in group meetings and bilateral discussions to community members who were considering decoupling their rainwater from the sewage system. Given the reliance on private citizen support for a successful implementation, it was of particular importance to highlight the ‘no-regret’ character of the EbA measures alongside the personal benefits which could be expected.

Lippeverband (2013). The Future Cities Guide: Creating Livable and Climate-Proo…