This working paper reports results from a literature review on ecosystem vulnerability to climate change undertaken within the CIFOR-led project AdaptEA, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. A total of 410 scientific publications were reviewed, with 183 studies examined in detail. Of those papers with clear geographic focus, most examined European or North American ecosystems, with only 18 studies focusing on Africa. Climatic and environmental drivers considered were temperature (52% of studies), precipitation (52%), carbon dioxide (15%) and rising sea level (11%).

Small communities are often the most severely affected, yet the least equipped to cope with the impacts of climate change.In recognition of this, the UNDP-GEF Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) project pilots the community component of the GEF Strategic Priority on Adaptation, building the resilience of communities and the ecosystems upon which they rely in the face of climate change impacts. Key features of the programme include:

According to this study, water abstraction and reservoir building in the upstream countries are expected to reduce and/or redistribute the available flows for the Okavango Delta ecosystem. To study the impacts of upstream and local interventions, a large-scale (1-km2 grid), coupled surface water/groundwater model was developed. Scenarios were designed to study major upstream and local interventions and their expected impacts in the Delta. The scenarios" results can help decision makers strike a balance between environmental and human water demands in the basin.

This guide is about taking account of, and managing, ecosystems to help people adapt to climate change in coastal areas: coastal Ecosystem based Adaptation (EBA). Vital to human wellbeing, adaptation to climate change is increasingly important in international policy discussions such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which have acknowledged the potential importance of EBA in meeting this challenge.