Natural and Environmental Disasters

07 Feb 2013 | SIDS Policy and Practice
6 February 2013: The 45th session of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)/World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Typhoon Committee considered, inter alia, urban flood risk management, cyclone renaming, severe weather forecasting, an assessment report on the influence of climate change on tropical cyclones. At the session, which took place from 29 January to 1 February 2013, in Hong Kong, China, the Typhoon Committee noted its new publication, “The Second...
29 Jan 2013 | SIDS Policy and Practice
22 January 2013: The UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) has published a “Handbook on Capitalisation of Experiences 2012.” The Handbook focuses on climate change adaptation experiences and aims to build the capacity of climate change adaptation programmes and project teams. The Handbook argues that good communication strategies and knowledge management are critical to achieve high impacts from capitalisation initiatives. The Handbook recommends capitalisation of...
24 Jan 2013 | SIDS Policy and Practice
22 January 2013: The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) has reported on the conclusion of Acclimate, a four-year project dedicated to climate change adaptation. The culmination of the project’s work, a regional strategy for climate change adaption, was adopted by the IOC’s 28th Council of Ministers on 17 January 2013, in the Seychelles. According to IOC, the project, which concluded on 31 December 2012, has sustainably strengthened cooperation among the countries of the Indian ocean, enabling them...
22 Jan 2013 | SIDS Policy and Practice
18 January 2013: The UN Office for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States (GCC) co-hosted a regional workshop on disaster risk reduction (DRR), which heard calls for stronger commitments in the Gulf region towards the development of a DRR strategy. At the workshop, titled “Reducing and managing disaster risk and implementing the Hyogo For Action (HFA),” which took place from 13-16 January 2013, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, GCC Secretary-General ...
17 Jan 2013 | SIDS Policy and Practice
16 January 2013: The Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) has reported on an upcoming mangrove rehabilitation and replanting project in two of the Marshall Islands’ wetlands of international importance, Namdrik and Jaluit Atolls.  According to the Ramsar Secretariat, the project aims to: increase community resilience to climate change on both atolls through restoring some of the existing degraded...