Overview

Well-managed ecosystems, such as wetlands, forests and coastal systems, act as natural infrastructure, reducing physical exposure to many hazards and increasing socio-economic resilience of people and communities by sustaining local livelihoods and providing essential natural resources such as food, water and building materials. Ecosystem management not only offers an opportunity to strengthen natural infrastructure and human resilience against hazard impacts, but also generates a range of other social, economic and environmental benefits for multiple stakeholders, which in turn feed back into reduced risk.

Objectives

As a cross-cutting theme, IUCN’s Ecosystem based approaches to disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) activities at the global level are coordinated by the IUCN Ecosystem Management Programme and supported by the expertise of CEM members. These activities include coordination and communications about Eco-DRR across IUCN, collecting and disseminating lessons learned about projects and processes that integrate ecosystem management, sustainable livelihoods and disaster risk reduction at the regional level. IUCN regional offices are in the forefront of developing innovative approaches to watershed management, institutional capacity building and collaborative project that integrate disaster risk and climate change adaptation. A good example is, Ecosystems Protecting Infrastructure and Communities (EPIC), which is IUCN’s first Eco-DRR and ecosystem-based adaptation project with project sites in six countries globally.

CEM is actively working in partnership with interested and qualified CEM members and especially with the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR), a global alliance of 22 international organisations, academic institutions and NGOs. Collaborative efforts involving CEM members include a growing “community of practice” for educational and scientific exchanges in the field of ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, participation in publications, periodic PEDRR workshops on Eco-DRR and periodic technical inputs to IUCN on specific requests for feedback.