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4A
Climate Change and Security in EECCA region
UNEP and GRID-Arendal are partners in the Environment
and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) Phase II.
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Its goal is to
contribute to the reduction of environment and security
risks through strengthened cooperation among and
within countries in four regions: Central Asia, Eastern
Europe, Southern Caucasus, and South-Eastern Europe.
GRID-Arendal is responsible for theassessment component
in the project entitled ‘Climate change and security in
Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus’
which is part of a bigger EU-funded package, as well as
contributing funding as a project consortium partner. The
objective of the project is to facilitate ENVSEC-trademark
participatory assessments of links between climate change
and security in the three regions, highlighting hotspots, and
presenting the assessment results in a visual and practical
format. The results of the regional assessments will also be
used to produce a cross-regional picture of climate change-
security issues and linkages.
Two draft assessment reports, on Eastern Europe and
Southern Caucasus based on background studies,
have been prepared and are currently under review by
partners. The third, on Central Asia, is in preparation by
UNDP, and will then be finalised by GRID-Arendal. The
project will continue into 2015, due to extended activities
by partner organizations.
4B
Enhancing the resilience of pastoral
ecosystems and livelihood of nomadic herders
During 2014, GRID-Arendal together with international
partners – the International Centre forReindeerHusbandry
(ICR), the Association of World Reindeer Herders (WRH),
local partners in Mongolia and the Russian Republic of
Sakha (Yakutia) – continued to develop a proposal for a
multi-million dollar GEF project. UNEP’s Project Review
Committee has approved the project and it is currently
pending submission by UNEP to the GEF Secretariat.
If funded by the GEF, this will be the largest international
collaboration project focusing on reindeer husbandry,
Indigenous Peoples and the environment. The project
objective is to develop methods and skills to conserve
and enhance biological diversity and reduce pasture
degradation in selected areas of reindeer herding inRussia
and Mongolia, while enhancing livelihood resilience and
sustainability of nomadic herder communities.
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Adaptation to Climate Change
Promoting best practices in the co-management of
natural resources with the equal involvement of reindeer
herders and government administrations is an increasing
focus of the Nomadic Herders’ project. In 2014, the
project organised a field visit for a group of 15 Russian
and Mongolian reindeer herders and decision makers to
the Laponia World Heritage Site in Sweden, enabling the
participants to learn about a unique form of governance
that allows for biodiversity objectives and traditional
livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples such as reindeer
husbandry to co-exist successfully. This is a model that
could be transferred to other reindeer herding regions.
During GRID-Arendal’s 25th Anniversary celebrations
in August 2014, GRID-Arendal and ICR signed a new
agreement to continue cooperation on nomadic reindeer
husbandry in Mongolia and the Russian Far East.
In Mongolia, the project has also been working to increase
the institutional capacity of the reindeer herding community
(the Dukha), which is the smallest indigenous group and
ethnic minority in Mongolia. Pilot activities are being
implemented to establish the Dukha Reindeer Information
Centre in Tsaganuur, northeast Mongolia. These include
granting scholarships for students of reindeer herding
families to interview their family members and document
traditional knowledge about biodiversity, reindeer, land
use and food culture. In addition, the project is piloting
satellite-based internet connection for the centre, in order
to connect Dukha herders to the outside world, and to other
reindeer herders across the Arctic through social media.
The project is also undertaking a feasibility assessment
on the import of reindeer from Russia, in order to boost
Former GRID-Arendal Managing Director Peter Prokosch and
Johan Mathis Turi from the International Centre for Reindeer
Husbandry sign a new cooperation agreement in August 2014.
Photo: Robert Barnes, GRID-Arendal
15. The ENVSEC Initiative - Phase II is part of UNEP Subprogramme 2:
Disasters and conflicts. With a view to its upcoming Chairmanship of
the Initiative, UNEP presented to the inter-agency Management Board an
outline of strategic objectives for 2015, which include water, disaster risk
reduction and climate change and security.