Dar to host climate change experts conference

CLIMATE-change experts from around the world meet later this month to share the latest knowledge about how communities can reduce their vulnerability, and how government policies can help make it happen.

Delegates at the 4th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Dar es Salaam, will include representatives of governmental and inter-governmental agencies, research institutions and non-governmental organisations.

The conference to be held from February 24 to 26 will enable delegates share information about ways communities can adapt to impacts of climate change using approaches such as water harvesting, alternative farming practices, and strategies to reduce the risk from disasters.

The meeting is being organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development, Environmental Protection Management Services (EPMS, Tanzania), the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), and the Ring Alliance.

Special sessions will focus on how communities in urban areas or rural drylands can adapt to climate change impacts such as heat-waves, floods and droughts.

"Climate change is a global problem but its impacts are always local and that means the solutions need to be found," says Dr Hannah Reid, Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development.

"Communities around the world are already feeling the impacts of climate change and are taking action to reduce their vulnerability.

What works in one setting could help limit impacts in many other places, so it is important that these success stories are analysed, shared and supported by sound policies."

The conference aims to identify good strategies for sharing information within and between vulnerable communities, and will promote the integration of community-based adaptation into national policies and international development programmes.

"Communities are well-placed to drive adaptation projects as they know best what the local challenges are and stand the most to gain from addressing them," says Reid.

"Adaptation to climate change can and must happen at the community level but for this to work it is essential that policymakers and funding agencies understand the benefits of bottom-up approaches and act to support them."

"The sharing of knowledge and adaptation practices from other parts of the world will create awareness in Tanzania and other vulnerable countries to improve adaptation strategies in communities that are at greatest risk from climate change," says Euster Kibona of EPMS.

"The conference will also open up funding opportunities for adaptation projects at the grass roots level."

The conference will be preceded by two days of field visits in areas where communities are practising coping/adaptation activities.

The meeting is being funded by Africa Adapt, the British Council, CARE, Christian Aid, EPMS, FAO (Communication for Sustainable Development Initiative), GTZ, IDRC, IFAD, IIED, OXFAM, Practical Action,

The Rockefeller Foundation as part of their 70 million dollar climate change resilience initiative, the Development Fund (Norway), UNDP, World Food Programme, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).