International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction
Nature-based solutions for resilience building, including sustainable agriculture and food systems
The United Nations General Assembly designated 13 October as International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) to promote a culture of disaster risk reduction, including prevention, mitigation, preparedness and adaptation to a changing climate. To mark the 2019 IDDRR, FAO Geneva in collaboration with the United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Permanent Missions of Fiji, Jamaica and Japan organized an event titled “Nature-based solutions for building resilience, including sustainable agriculture and food systems”.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) offer a promising contribution on enhancing the availability and quality of natural resources for productive purposes, while simultaneously preserving the ecosystems. By conserving nature and sustainably managing and restoring ecosystems, nature-based solutions form a crucial part of the toolbox for addressing climate change and disaster risks, natural resources management, and food and nutrition insecurity.
At the opening of the event, Director of FAO GenevaMs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said, “given its reliance on climate, agriculture and its subsectors absorb 26% of all damage and loss caused by medium- to large-scale climate-induced hazards”. She added, however, agriculture and food systems also contribute to climate change, being responsible for 25-30% of global total greenhouse gas emissions. Hence,the urgent need to accelerate and scale up a global transition to and transformative change for sustainable agriculture and food systems which includes, nature-based solutions. Ms Rodrigues-Birkett underscored that nature is key part of the solution to climate change action, disaster risk reduction for resilience building and sustainable development. She noted, however, that implementing successful nature-based solutions calls for interventions on a system-wide level requiring a structured, comprehensive and multi-stakeholder approach that starts with the valuation of the services provided by the ecosystem. Ms Rodrigues-Birkett urged public and private sector to scale up actions and investments into climate and disaster resilience including NbS, within and across sectors, especially for agriculture and food systems.
Speaking at the time when Japan was expecting the arrival of the “explosive” typhoon Hagibis, Ambassador Junichi Ihara shared his country’s experience on ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction. Japan is a country extremely exposed and vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, storms, earthquakes and extreme heat. He emphasized that one way to reduce risks and mitigate its impacts is through nature-based solutions. For example, rice paddy field in Japan is used to prevent flood and prevent soil erosion (ie., capture soil particles and level land and groundwater). Agriculture has its multifunctionality in Japan in terms of landscape, culture, community and biodiversity protection, he concluded.
Ambassador Cheryl Spencer stressed that as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), located in the Caribbean region, which is the second-most disaster-affected region of the world, Jamaica can attest first hand to the devastating and debilitating effects of natural disasters. While underscoring the resources challenge faced by SIDS, Ambassador Spencer also made an important point regarding the resources challenge and the growing indebtedness due to natural disasters in SIDS. Ms Spencer shared some key solutions to strengthen resilience building programmes and activities at the national and local levels, including efforts to integrate nature-based interventions into existing and future policy and community planning. This includes the importance of using risk data, analysis and information systems to guide planning processes, budgetary allocations and risk-informed decision making and actions. Ms Spencer concluded by reiterating Jamaica commitments to global, regional and national processes for resilience building.
Mr Anare Leweniqila provided a brief overview of the outcomes of the COP23 under Fiji’s presidency in 2017 including the 2018 Talanoa Dialogue, the Launch of Ocean Pathway Partnership, the Climate Vulnerability Assessment and the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture which recognizes the role of agriculture in tackling climate change and building resilient and sustainable agriculture and food systems. Sharing Fiji’s experiences, he noted that the country has adopted a Green Growth Framework for sustainable development and the promotion of for nature-based solutions for building resilience including agriculture sectors.
Mr Ricardo Mena of UNDRR informed that following to the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) in March 2015, the online Sendai Framework Monitoring System was launched in March 2018, to allow the governments to report their progress of the seven global targets of the SFDRR. Mr Mena noted that 125 member countries are using the Sendai Framework Monitor to report on the implementation of the SFDRR. He highlighted the challenges that countries face in providing the data requirements and the necessary efforts countries made to overcome these challenges. Mr Mena underscored the important linkages between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, hence the need to ensure coherence and integration of these two workstreams for risk-informed development.
Dr Sandeep Sengupta of IUCN spoke on the benefits of nature-based solutions with an emphasis on its role to address both causes and consequences of climate change and disaster risks for resilience building. He added, despite the benefits already documented, nature-based solutions are not fully integrated yet by countries in their national policies and commitments and although two-thirds of the Paris Agreement signatories include NbS in their Nationally Determined Contributions – these are currently not substantive or stringent enough. Dr Sengupta concluded his remarks on a positive note that there is growing global awareness of NbS, most recently at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. He added, “increasingly countries are investing in NbS from a DRR perspective – hence, there are many good reasons to be optimistic”.
The event documents can be accessed here.
Related links:
FAO's work on Disaster Risk Reduction
Secretary General Message on the International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction 2019