Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts in Mountain Forest Ecosystems of Armenia
I. General information
What is the type of the document?:
Other
Country:
Title of the programme/strategy:
Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts in Mountain Forest Ecosystems of Armenia
Title of the programme/strategy:
Կլիմայական փոփոխությունների նկատմամբ Հայաստանի լեռնային անտառների էկոհամակագերի հարմարվողականության բարձրացումը
Keywords:
Overview:
The project aims to enhance national capacities to adapt to anticipated climate change impacts in the affected south-eastern forests of Armenia. The project will help to achieve a full-fledged mainstreaming of adaptation into the forest management and conservation framework whereby climate change impacts on forest ecosystems will be incorporated into the forest management policies and measures. The project will reduce vulnerability and increase adaptative capacity to cope with the adverse impact of climate change in valuable mountain forest ecosystems in Armenia. The project also aims to reduce the risk of global biodiversity loss and to enhance protection of mountain forest ecosystems and their sustainable use in the context of anticipated climate change over the next 25- to 50-year timeframe. In addition to global benefits, the project will also generate national benefits by enhancing national capacity for planned adaptation.
The project components include:
Background and rationale:
The project will develop adaptive capacities for south-eastern mountain forest ecosystems in
Armenia, in line with UNFCCC objectives of promoting adaptation to climate change. Inasmuch as the project focuses on areas of mountain forest ecosystems, the project will generate benefits in the biodiversity focal area by ensuring that the forestry sector mainstreams conservation of biodiversity into its activities by specifically undertaking measures that mitigate climate-related threats to biodiversity. This will help reduce the vulnerability of mountain forest ecosystems that harbor endangered and vulnerable flora and fauna to expected climate change and reduce the risks of global biodiversity loss. By developing adaptive capacities of local communities, local self-governments, conservation managers and foresters of the target forest region, the global environmental benefits being delivered by multiple efforts described above will be made resilient to climate change.
National benefits will also be realized because Armenian institutions and nationals will acquire the skills to address adaptation, which can be applied in other parts of the country. To the extent that the project will develop critical capacities to begin a longer-term process of integrating climate concerns into the implementation of programs, which in turn enhance ecosystem integrity and resilience to climate change, this will benefit locals that rely on the natural resources base as a source of livelihood.
II. Detailed information
Start date:
01/06/2008
Expected end date:
01/06/2012
Research policy priorities targeted:
Geographic coverage:
Armenia with main focus on the Syunik region
Target group(s):
Additional remarks:
local communities, local self-governments
Research themes and disciplines of research targeted:
The project will help mitigate environmental (including socioeconomic) costs of disturbance processes exacerbated by climate change, and maintain societal
values of the current ecological and related economic systems: conservation of the priority species and habitats, and improved forest management and forestry practice.
Target fields:
Overall implementation structure of the programme/strategy:
Based on the analysis, the proposed project strategy is to take an “adaptive capacity enhancement
approach”, as outlined in UNDP’s Adaptation Policy Framework (APF). Under this approach, the project will assess the mountain forest ecosystems in the Syunik region with respect to their current adaptive capacity, and propose ways in which adaptive capacity can be increased so that it is better
able to cope with climate change, including climate variability. The focus will be on increasing the
capacity of the south-east mountain forest cosystems to be resilient to climate change. This will be achieved by introducing flexible policies, spatial planning and management practices to enhance the
inherent adaptability of the species and habitats and reduce trends in human-induced pressures that
increase vulnerability to climate variability. This will particularly include (i) developing technical
capacities for systematic observation, data collection and scenario planning; (ii) implementing
ecological restoration to bring back environmental resilient conditions to forest species populations,
stands and landscapes, testing and streamlining other adaptation measures to improve pest and fire
management; and (iii) supporting knowledge transfer and experience sharing aimed at full
integration of internationally proven adaptation practices in mountain forest management at the
national and local levels.
Programme evaluation:
Additional remarks:
Project monitoring and evaluation will be conducted in accordance with established UNDP and
GEF procedures by the project team and the UNDP Country Office (UNDP-CO), with support
from the UNDP/GEF Regional Coordination Unit in Bratislava. The Logical Framework Matrix
provides performance and impact indicators for project implementation along with their
corresponding means of verification. The logframe is developed based on UNDP/GEF impact
monitoring framework at adaptation project level, specifically, technical paper (TA) on natural
resource management.
IV. How to find out more
Information source:
http://www.nature-ic.am/ccarmenia/en/
Funding agency:
Government of Armenia and International Organizations
(UNDP, GEF)
URL: www.gov.am
Launching agency:
Government of Armenia
URL: www.gov.am
Correspondent name:
Anahit Khachikyan
Correspondent institution:
Center of Ideas and Technologies
Correspondent contact details:
e-mail: anip@sci.am
Date of submission:
17/04/2009 09:30