New Delhi, 21st October 2021 Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) along with its partners, TMG Research, WWF Mesoamerica, and ADIMI Guatemala hosted a webinar on Roadmaps for scaling up Ecosystem-based Adaptation: Insights from Guatemala and India. With more than 400 registration across the globe, the event attracted a mix of researchers, practitioners (NGOs), people from the private sector, govt officials, farmer organisations, and media.
Over the past 3 years TMG Research, together with WOTR in India, WWF Mesoamerica and ADIMI in Guatemala, have been exploring pathways to upscale EbA. This webinar explored a roadmap development process to upscale EbA, outlining their specificities, success factors, and challenges. It aimed to inform discussions around this year’s summits (like UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow), promoting EbA as an effective, scalable, and integrated adaptation solution with multiple benefits.
While the globe grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences, other crises like climate change, ongoing species extinction, and rising global hunger continue. Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and other systemic techniques will be crucial in tackling some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today. EbA enhances human resilience to climate shocks by working with nature. It can also yield other benefits like improved food security.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Dr. Ashok Dalwai – CEO, NRAA, Ministry of Agriculture (India) said, “India realises the importance of EbA as it is offers a comprehensive solution especially in the context of India’s climate vulnerability.”
“In order to take the roadmap, one concrete action that WOTR and several other stakeholders have decided on is to initiate a new network or Collaborative on EbA. This network will be called the Ecosystem-Based Adaptation for Resilient Incomes (EcoBARI). And will be a collaborative of civil society organisations, research institutes, thematic experts, private sector and government officials, all keen on upscaling EbA in the country. We expect to have a launch event in early November,” said Arjuna Srinidhi, lead researcher at WOTR.