la Coquille

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Title of project:

 Adaptation Initiative to Climate Change in the DRCongo's forest ecosystems

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Name of the  organization : «  La Coquille »,A  Christian Ecologist association  and Humanitarian 

Contact person: KINGUNIA INEET Nicky

Address: 39/C, Quarter Bantandu, Commune de Matete, Kinshasa,

 Democratic Republic of Congo

E-mail: lacoquille_rdc@yahoo.fr

Tél. : (+243) 81 512 9190

Type of the  organization: NGO

Primary purpose of the  organization:

The ultimate purpose  of  La Coquille (The Shell) is to constitute a partnership   which supports and develops a collaboration  and co-operation framework  and networking to facilitate sharing of expertise between the organizations, institutions  and the private sector involved  in  protecting  and  promoting of the quality of the underworld life for a sustainable  development.

Targeted Sector, Region and Population.

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Sector: Forests, water  and Agriculture

Region: DR Congo

Target population: rural

Purpose, Objectives and Activities

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Purpose:

The purpose of this project is to contribute to the capacity building   in climate risk management and future vulnerability of the  DRCongo's forest ecosystems to the harmful effects of climate change by developing vulnerability assessment methodologies, adaptation strategies and policy. 

The project will be implemented in Democratic Republic of Congo and consists in understanding and improving vulnerability and adaptation of the DRCongo's forest ecosystems, underlining those which play a significant role in policies of national development.

Objective:

Specific objectives of the project are:

Ø       To assess the  impacts of climate change  and climate variability on tropical forest ecosystems in  selected areas;

Ø       To develop and to examine a whole assessment vulnerability  methodologies  of relevant field of development resulting from the climate change impacts  above the forest ecosystems;

Ø       Assess available endogenous and traditional knowledge  about risks and adaptation opportunities ;

Ø       To develop  and to examine tools (databases, systems of the experts, models and others) for vulnerability assessment  and  adaptation strategies;

Ø       To  develop and examine criteria and indicators for the adaptive management of  tropical forest  ecosystems in DRCongo ;

Ø       To develop  strategies policy  for  adaptation of the tropical forests to  climate change, taking into account  relevance of these systems with specific aspects of the development of policies

Main Activities:

Ø       focusing its activities on  identification of  national priorities of climate risks for which forest and water  ecosystems are vulnerable;

Ø       these priorities will be identified in consultation with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and as an element of a political dialogue implemented through workshops;

Ø       Developing methodologies to assess  vulnerability concerning the fields identified above;

Ø       Use of these methodologies to assess  vulnerability and  to identify priorities of adaptation;

Ø       Develop, test and disseminate risk communication materials that are designed to assist adaptation decisions;

Ø       Use the risk communication materials in stakeholder forums to develop recommendations for climate change adaptation and promote their adoption;

Ø       Identification and  development of means of incorporating adaptation needs to  national policies, including the sectoral ones;

Ø       Release  of innovating mechanisms to finance adaptation, such as the private sector;

Ø       Establishment of a regional policy to dialogue and increase the regional co-operation on the adaptation.

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Usefulness for climate change adaptation decision making.

This study is an attempt of identification of climate risks and integrated regional vulnerability assessment to climate change. It could be used as a basis for sharing of view on issues as well scientific as political specific in the DRCongo's forest ecosystems.

The results of the adaptation study  to climate change in the DR Congo's forest ecosystems  will be used as indicators on the impacts which warming would generate on the natural stock management of the DR Congo's forest ecosystems (amongst other things, water and forests).

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Relevance for poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

The expected climate change effects will endanger the traditional ways of life. The population growth and economic and institutional changes will influence the sensitivity and the vulnerability of the DR Congo' forests ecosystems with variability and climate change. This project will contribute to the capacity building as well at the human level as on climate change knowledge in sight of improvement and promotion of living standard of populations and interested communities in natural stock management.

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Involvement of Stakeholders.

Ø       Government: to hold account of the climate change in water and forests stock management  agreements; to encourage and support the filing program  and control based on the communities;

Ø       Local communities: to reduce GHG emissions , to participate  in the checking program and to support adaptation training course;

Ø       Researchers : to introduce traditional knowledge into databases  and to develop scenarios ;

Ø       Private sector: to hold account of the climate change in their research, planning, and design of projects.

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Consistency with national priorities.

The Democratic Republic of Congo signed and ratified several International Conventions and protocols in Environment field. These conventions constitute committements for action plans for a sustainable management of environmental resources.

In the framework of these various instruments, the Democratic Republic of the Congo produced national programs relating to the environment. It acts in particular :

§         The Action Plan for Tropical Forest(APTF), designed in 1988 and supported by FAO;

§         The Action Plan for the Environment(APE), designed in 1997

§         The National Agricultural and Rural Sector Recovery Program( NARSRP) designed in 1998;

§         The National Strategy and Biodiversity Action Plan (NSBAP) designed in 1999;

§         The Document for Growth and  Poverty Reduction Strategies;

§         The Meteorology and related Sectors Development Strategy, designed in 2003;

§         The DRC's Initial National Communication on Climate Change, submitted in 2001.

Adaptation Initiative to Climate Change in the DR Congo's forest ecosystems will allow the capacity building to support and develop methodologies for vulnerability assessment of various resources and ecosystem of this study zone.

To this end, the project will be focused on  constraints,  gaps and  weaknesses and capacity building needs for development  related to the stock management of the DR Congo's forest ecosystem in order to promote synergies of  various environmental plans and programs

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Project methodology and outputs:

Adaptation Initiative to Climate Change in the DRCongo's forest ecosystems will not follow the traditional approach of climate change studies which initially were limited to the assessment of direct impacts of climate change over a defined system. The project intends to put forest and waters ecosystems in the context of development policies.

The assessment of vulnerability will, therefore, be directed at specific areas/topics from the development policy commonly identified by the project team and national actors (primarily government representatives, national research institutions and the private sector).

More specifically, the activities of the Adaptation Initiative to Climate Change in the DRCongo's forest ecosystems will be directed at understanding how climate change impacts over forests may hinder development in the identified areas/topics.

In order to do this, the team will assess how climate change is likely to affect the provision of goods and services that support or contribute to specific development priorities.

Adaptation Initiative to Climate Change in the DRCongo's forest ecosystems acknowledges that adaptation should be addressed in the context of sustainable development and related policies. For this reason, the project will have as a starting point the development priorities and policies, those in which forest ecosystems play a role either as adaptation options (e.g. how forests can contribute to decreasing vulnerability of a specific topic(s)/area(s)) or as components of the vulnerability (e.g. how impacts over forests can undermine development efforts in a specific topic(s)/area(s)).