Current activities

2005

Introducing the Project to the Climate Change Community

2005 was mostly devoted to the design and final preparation of the Project, including deep reflections on its orientation and operational strategy. Three preliminary meetings were held in CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica from April to August, for brainstorming and presentation of the Project to the CATIE scientific and professional community.

TroFCCA was first introduced in the Latin American region, during the Latin-American Network of Climate Change Offices meeting, held in October, in Guatemala, attended by representatives from the Climate Change Offices of the three countries relevant for TroFCCA. The methodological approach of the Project was appreciated. The meeting was an important occasion for establishing strategic contacts for future collaborations.

The participation of TroFCCA representatives at the COP11 in Montreal was also very useful to establish contacts with key stakeholders in the adaptation community. It was also a useful introduction to the relevant themes and actors as has been the case of innovative financial mechanisms for adaptation. In particular, the Munich Re Insurance Initiative was very illustrative of the global concern that is growing around the issues of financial sustainability of adaptation strategies. This constitutes an important pillar of action especially in developing countries where financial resources are scarce and the impacts of climate change are deemed as more severe.

Exploring the Context and the Information Available

The Project TROFCCA in Central America undertook several initial studies in order to compile available information for its strategic orientation.

Patricia Ramirez undertook the work entitled "Climate, Climate Variability and Climate Change in Central America: Review of experiences, actors and needs in tropical forest climate change vulnerability and adaptation in Central America". This work is a deep assessment on the information available concerning climate change detection, vulnerability assessment and potential actors, and policies framework development. Some of the conclusions point that the region is extremely vulnerable to climate variability, which is the cause of frequent droughts and floods. Nine drought events related to El Niño South Oscillation (ENSO) have been recorded in the last 50 years; and from 61 to 98, 63 events of heavy rainfall or tropical storms were also recorded. These 63 events may have caused a toll of 21,785 dead people, and an estimate of USD 15,242,255,000 in economic losses. Hurricanes Fifi and Mitch have been the major cause. The report concludes that available climate scenarios have coarse resolution, making difficult the preduction of local climate. In broad terms, expected changes are temperature (with increases ranging from 1 - 1.3 degrees in 30 years) and rainfall (dropping from 1.0. to 12%, in the next 30 years, using data series from 1961 to 1990). The Pacific Basin is expected to experience higher temperatures and less rainfall, than the Caribbean.

An extensive "Review on Forest and Hydrological Services, and its Perspectives for Climate Change" was conducted by Raffaele Vignola during the second semester of 2005. It presents an extensive review of the relationshop between forest and water, stressing the importance of forests for maintaining hydrological and related environmental services (e.g. flood control, water infiltration, erosion control or reduction, water quantity and quality, seasonal water availability, nutrient cycle, and biodiversity). Of these environmental services, water infiltration, erosion control and enhancement of water quality are the most documented. Impacts of climate change on forests range from increase in fire events, invasion of new species, ecosystem shift and insects and pathogen outbreaks. Adaptive forest ecosystem management based on climate change projections will be site specific and according to priorities (timber production, keeping or enhancing environmental services, etc.). One of the main conclusions is that the information on forest & water relationships, and projected climate change impacts on tropical forests, is very limited or unavailable. More research is needed to design appropriate adaptation strategies.

Another study was conducted to explore the potential for integrating economic risk management and ecosystem attributes into an ecological insurance model. The design of a conceptual framework was carried out by Thomas Koellner, in a work entitled "Role of tropical forests in mitigating economic risks of climate change". The study highlights the linkages between ecosystem´s management and financial risks due to potential loss of economic values relating to extreme weather events. A framework for developing a Module on Economic Risk was proposed, which addresses the importance of ecosystem management to reduce vulnerability towards flooding and/or droughts in a changing climate and the implication of this management for vulnerability and risk reduction. The conceptual framework states that economic systems have deferent strategies for reducing risks: i) the technology strategy; ii) the diversified portfolio; iii) The financial strategy; and iv) the ecological strategy. Of particular interest is the financial strategy, whereby, the availability of financial insurance influences the economic risk for actors (i.e.: landholders, local communities, industries, etc.) and thus the individual strategy selection. Two thesis at the Ph.D. level are proposed for further exploration of this potential.

I Semester 2006

I Regional Meeting on Tropical Forest and Climate Change Adaptation

The main activity during the first Semester of 2006 is the Kick Off Meeting in Central America. This event will take place during the first week of April (3 to 6.04). The main objectives of this event are: i) to initiate and formalize the Project activities in the Region, identifying subjects and areas of work that are relevant to national institutions engaged in UNFCCC; and ii) to initiate a dialogue on national and regional policies, where participating countries (Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica) will have an opportunity to exchange information on climate change adaptation, and the role of tropical forest on this endeavor. The meeting will take place at CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica. Participants are invited from the three countries, Panama, and other TROFCCA representatives from Indonesia and Africa.