Building resilience of communities living in landscapes threatened under climate change through an ecosystems-based adaptation approach

Seventy percent of Namibia’s population depends on natural resources to sustain their livelihoods. The productivity of these natural resources is threatened by both climate and non-climate drivers, both which increase the vulnerability of rural communities. This project will use Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) as cost effective and low risk approach to build climate resilience across eight targeted landscapes in Namibia. The project is based on the premise that biodiversity and ecosystems provide valuable services that increase the climate resilience of local communities. Activities undertaken as part of the project will maintain and enhance ecosystem integrity to continue to support the generation of food and income in order to reduce the severity of negative socio-economic impacts of climate change on vulnerable rural households. In addition, adaptive capacities at the community level will be improved so that communities are able to sustainably manage natural resources. This project has an estimated lifespan of 5 years.