Cape Verde National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA)
Project Overview
National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) provide a process for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to identify priority activities that respond to their immediate needs to adapt to climate change, ultimately leading to the implementation of projects aimed at reducing the economic and social costs of climate change.
Project Details
Cape Verde, as an archipelago country of volcanic origin, presents an environment system with a high degree of fragility and vulnerability face the occurrence of extreme natural phenomena. In account of the fragility of the ecosystems, the insularity and vulnerability that characterize the country, the instruments for implementation of a development strategy have been elaborated with the aim of integrating environmental issues into the planning process and promotion of a sustainable development. The strategic axes of intervention in the areas of economy, environment, security and poverty reduction have been defined in the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy, in the Programme of Fight Against Poverty and in the National Environment Action Plan, and aim at the continued and sustained growth of the economy, the permanent consolidation of national cohesion, the improvement of the quality of life of Cape Verdeans, as well as a wider space for participation and a substantial affirmation of citizenship.
In the context of environmental protection, Cape Verde has signed and ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on Desertification (UNCCD) as well as other protocols aiming at the preservation of the national and global environment. In 2000, Cape Verde submitted its First National Communication and the National Strategy on Climate Change to the UNFCCC.
Small island development states possess some common characteristics: small surface area, relatively high population density, inadequacy of infrastructure and the lack of natural resources, particularly of potable water resources. All these elements have repercussions not only on geophysical characteristics but also on these countries’ economic and social development conditions. Certain features that are typical of island ecosystems, namely fishing resources and coral reefs, are threatened by climate change; islands are prone to natural catastrophes and all these elements can be aggravated by unplanned economic growth. This can have harmful consequences on certain economic sectors, such as tourism and agriculture, as well as on food security and nutrition.
Several resource-dependent communities in poor countries have already started to feel the effects of climate changes. In this perspective, one of the objectives of the NAPA is the identification of urgent and immediate actions for expanding and broadening the range of climate change coping strategies applied by those communities, so that they may improve their capacity of adaptation to the current climatic variability and extreme events, and, consequently to future changes. In this context, the adaptation programme must be oriented towards increasing the resilience of the country to climatic change and variability, in order for them to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Cape Verdeans identified adaptation strategic actions that include integrated management of water resources, production of food, ecosystems and tourism, development of the agro-silvo-pastoral production systems and protection and prevention of degradation of coastal zones.
Because vulnerability depends on communities’ capacity to adapt to changing conditions, which is by itself a function of the poverty level, we believe that the national strategy for implementation of the National Adaptation Programme of Action on Climate Change (NAPA) must be articulated around policies and measures for the short and medium terms, in compliance with the temporal horizon of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy and through priority projects, with indicators for progress monitoring and evaluation of the success and difficulties of adaptation strategies.
Source: Cape Verde NAPA
Key Results and Outputs
The Goal of this adaptation programme is to increase the capacity of resistance of Cape Verde to climate change (CC) and climate variability (CV) in order to achieve the development objectives set in its Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. This programme complements the recently concluded National Strategy Action Plan against Climate Changes that focuses mostly on the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases.
In order to reach the Goal, this programme has three priority sectoral Objectives, as identified through the vulnerability analysis undertaken by the broad stakeholders groups during the participatory process to prepare this NAPA. These three Objectives are:
- Promoting integrated water resources management in order to guarantee water for the people, for the production of food, for the ecosystems and for the tourism industry;
- Developing the adaptability of the agro-silvo-pastoral production systems in order to ensure and improve national food production
- Protecting and preventing degradation of the coastal zones, caused by climatic aggressions and by tourism
- Integrated water resources management
- Improvement and security of agro-silvo-pastoral production
- The protection of coastal zones/impact related to tourism
Strategies
This adaptation programme, which aims to reduce the vulnerability of Cape Verde to the consequences of climate change in the three sectors described above, will be implemented through four cross-cutting strategic approaches:
- Capacity development for stakeholders in matters related to adaptation to climate change and climate variability;
- Increased investment in adaptive conservation and soil protection measures;
- Action-research in order to improve the resistance of the population and ecosystems;
- Information, education and communication campaigns for stakeholders on the risks due to climate change and climate variability.
- Capacity development for stakeholders in matters related to adaptation to climate change and climate variability.
- Increased investment in adaptive conservation and soil protection measures.
- Action research in order to improve the resistance of the population and the ecosystems
- Information, education and communication campaigns for stakeholders on the risks due to the climate change and climate variability.
Source: Cape Verde NAPA