Adaptation Community Meeting - Communities to Landscapes: Multi-scale Approach to Climate Adaptation in Nepal

Many communities in Nepal rely on forests and subsistence agriculture for food and income, and ecosystems for water supplies and protection from disasters. That dependence is threatened by increasing climate variability and longer-term change. Already, farming and water supplies are affected in many areas, and more extreme rainfall events are exacerbating flood and landslide risk.
 
The USAID/Nepal-funded Hariyo Ban (Green Forests) Program is using an integrated approach to address the multi-faceted challenges climate change poses to livelihoods and biodiversity. The February 2018 Adaptation Community Meeting featured Judy Oglethorpe, former Chief of Party for Hariyo Ban, who shared the importance of working at multiple scales (from community to landscapes) as well as within various political and ecological spheres to achieve positive adaptation outcomes. Ms. Oglethorpe shared lessons learned from the program that range from the importance of empowering the most vulnerable people to ensure they participate and benefit, to restoring ecological connectivity along climate gradients, and promoting upstream-downstream collaboration in water catchments to avoid maladaptation. Integrating disaster risk reduction with climate adaptation is essential, and mainstreaming adaptation into local government planning helps ensure long-term support beyond project timeframes. Flexible adaptation funding enables support across disciplines to meet highest priority needs.

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Speaker

Judy Oglethorpe was Chief of Party for the first phase of the Hariyo Ban (Green Forests) Program in World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal, and is currently Senior Director, Multilateral Program Development in WWF US. Before going to Nepal, she managed programs in WWF-US, working in climate adaptation, health, population, livelihoods, conflict, transboundary natural resource management, and large-scale conservation. She worked for 14 years in Southern/East Africa in biodiversity, forest and wildlife conservation; and community based natural resource management. She has a Masters degree in Environmental Management, University of London and a BSc in Ecological Science, University of Edinburgh.

This event is organized by the USAID Climate Change Adaptation, Thought Leadership, and Assessments (ATLAS) project. All Adaptation Community Meeting webinars can be found here.