This is the first newsletter of the Schokland Agreement “Controlling Climate Risks”. In this newsletter you can read more about progress, work and projects from partners, and events organised by the secretariat.

When you have problems reading this newsletter click here.

This first newsletter focuses on Disaster Risk Reduction; the local approach. The next newsletter will appear in two months. Copy for this newsletter can be send to the secretariat.

www.millenniumakkoorden.nl
Recently, the Schokland-website has been replaced by the website www.millenniumakkoorden.nl. The Schokland Agreements are now called Millennium Agreements. The Agreement on Controlling Climate Risks is Agreement number four.

The 3th Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries

On Thursday November 26th 2009, the "3th Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries" will take place at the Vredespaleis in The Hague, The Netherlands. The full program will be available soon.

In the morning keynotes will address several issues concerning adaptation, including finance. Mr. Herman Wijffels and Minister Bert Koenders have confirmed to speak at the conference.

As in previous years, the afternoon program will consist of several in-depth workshops on various issues concerning adaptation. If your organisation is interested in organising a workshop, please contact the secretariat. The conference is organised by the Schokland (as from now Millennium) Agreement secretariat, the HIER-campaign and NCDO. All reports and presentations of the 2nd conference in 2008 can be found here.

Workshop: Micro-insurance for climate risks

On Tuesday April 28th 2009 the workshop Micro-insurance for Climate Risks took place at the Eureko Conference Center in Zeist. The workshop was organised by the secretariat together with TSD of the University of Twente, Eureko and Oxfam Novib.

M.P. Vasimalai and Muniappan Karthikeyan from the DHAN Foundation in India spoke about Mutual Crop Insurance and its Relevance to Climate Change Adaptation. Andries Rosema from EARS introduced a new project FESA: Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring, Yield Forecasting and Drought Insurance. Finally, Michiel Berende from IBEX spoke about how Crowd-Sourcing could be used for Indexed Crop Insurance. Please, click on the name of the presenter for the full presentation.
 
Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) conference

Between 8 and 12 June 2009, Cordaid organised a global Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) and climate change conference in Malawi. A total of 70 partner organisations from 15 countries shared their experiences on climate change and disaster risk reduction. They made a joint statement on disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.

 Several campaigns on development and climate starting

With COP 15 in Copenhagen approaching, several campaigns are starting. ICCO and their international partners are launching Countdown to Copenhagen in the Netherlands on September 21st, see De Klimaatbelofte. Cordaid and their international partners are running a Climate Justice campaign. The HIER-campaign and partners in cooperation with the NCDO are starting a campaign on the consequences of climate change in developing countries in the beginning of October, called "DAAR ben ik". On the 12th of December, during Copenhagen, a large coalition of development and environment NGOs are organising "Beat the Heat Now" a national climate event in Utrecht.

Agenda

• 22-09-2009 at 14:00 hours:
  Partner meeting for the Millennium Agreement “Controlling Climate Risks”. Location: Klimaatbureau, Hamburgerstraat 28A, Utrecht
• 24-09-2009 at 13:00 hours:
  Expertmeeting "Escape the Poverty Trap: INSURANCE?". Organised by MicroNed and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Registration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
  Location: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, Den Haag, room 1C35.
• 26-11-2009 at 9:30 hours:
  The 3th Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries.
  Location: Vredespaleis, The Hague, The Netherlands.
  More information and the full program will follow soon. Registration will be possible on this website and by sending an e-mail to the secretariat. 

Partners of the Millennium Agreement  "Controlling Climate Risks"

The Netherlands Red Cross, Simavi, Cordaid, BothEnds, AMREF Flying Doctors, Avalon Foundation, Wetlands International, WWF the Netherlands, University for Peace, CARE The Netherlands, ICCO, Save the Children, SNV, Oxfam Novib, ITC, WUR, KNMI, ETC, IVM VU Amsterdam, TSD UT Twente, Eureko, Cardano, FMO, NWP, Commision MER, CPWC, Climate Partners, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Contact details

For questions and remarks concerning this newsletter or the Millennium Agreement, please contact the secretariat.

Millennium Agreement “Controlling Climate Risks” secretariat

Gijs Termeer
Klimaatbureau HIER
Hamburgerstraat 28A
3512 NS Utrecht
The Netherlands
+31-30-234 8267

‘The need for a local approach’
Madeleen Helmer (director Red Crescent Climate Centre) on the local approach to DRR

In several countries, including India, Brazil, China, Bangladesh and EU countries, both civil society organizations and the private sector agree that DRR and adaptation strategies need a local approach, rather than a nationally oriented one. Head of the Red Crescent Climate Centre, Madeleen Helmer, participates in all crucial global discussions about DRR. According to her, the outcomes are unambiguous. ‘All discussions seem to point in one direction: there’s need for a local approach. This unanimous sound echoes from discussions held by a diverse spectrum of related actors’, she says.

DRR strategies significantly deviate from regular development strategies. Madeleen Helmer: ‘It is important to understand that actions with regard to Climate Change Adaptation and DRR specifically, do not function according to the mechanisms of development cooperation.'

One of the main problems is that current systems are not linked. Madeleen Helmer: 'The institutional organisation with regard to climate, mainly has a global and environmental focus, without a link to the knowledge available on DRR. Investing in academic knowledge on the changes in our climate system may only be relevant when coupled to adaptation to these changes. Institutional changes in order to facilitate this integration of the two fields of knowledge are essential.' 
Knowledge of the climate system on a global level should lead to a more pragmatic understanding of the system on a local level. Yet currently, this approach is receiving little attention. ‘Only if research leads to understanding of the changes local people are already experiencing every day, investments in this field may be regarded relevant', Madeleen Helmer says. ' The goal must be to provide the local understanding of how to reduce risks and adapt to these changes’. 

As the financing of this approach is concerned, new money needs to be made available. Madeleen Helmer: ‘At this moment, ten to forty percent of all weather related disasters show a climate signal. If we see this trend, and we accept it, we must also take the next step and make money available. This needs to be new and additional, yet linked to ODA, and ten percent needs to be reserved for Disaster Preparedness and Early Warning Systems.

For more information: see www.climatecentre.org

Cordaid

'Ethiopian communities invent own coping strategies'
Sasja Kamil (Cordaid) about 'community managed DRR'

For decades, Nomad pastoral communities with big herds wandered about the forests and meadows of Southern Ethiopia. Nowadays, with the temperature rising and the rains staying away, this way of living seems definitely past tense. Escorting sun with violent windy conditions and dwindling water sources completely destroyed all natural resources. The cattle have been lost and people are far less healthy because of the lack of milk and other animal products.

To make absolutely sure that these induced causes and impacts of climate change are as severe as they seem, and to simultaneously develop a strategy for DRR and climate adaptation, in 2008, Cordaid and it’s local partner Forum for Social Studies initiated an extensive study. ‘We wanted to investigate if it’s really true what we think’, says Sasja Kamil, team leader climate adaptation at Cordaid. ‘With this study we were looking at all aspects that effect livelihood, like floods, droughts and disease.’

Other objectives included community awareness and the development of characteristic coping strategies. Sasja Kamil: ‘Instead of accepting climate change as a punishment from God, pastoralist communities now realize that at least something should be done to outlive the consequences.’

The communities participated in workshops and teachings and eventually invented their own coping strategies, consisting of plans for capturing rainwater and switching from cattle to camels. ‘Community managed DRR’, Cordaid calls this working method. During a meeting of Cordaid and its partners in Lilongwe, June 2009, all present signed a declaration supporting this approach. Sasja Kamil stresses the significance. ‘This shared statement is very important to us. It is the starting point for all our projects world-wide.’

Read more on Cordaids work on climate change
Read more on Cordaids Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) projects
Watch Cordaid video's on climate adaptation here

CARE Nederland

‘Sluices and dams save peatlands Kalimantan’
Nok van de Langenberg, DRR specialist at CARE, about watermanagement

As from 2008, CARE assists in preventing damage to vulnerable peatlands in Central Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. In the mid-‘90s, Sukarno initiated a large-scale agriculture project in this area, which turned out to be a catastrophe. In stead of bringing prosperity and health, the logging of tropical forest and draining of the peat areas for the purpose of breeding rice, caused dehydration and hence, a significantly high risk for forest-fire.

When dry, peatland can be a major fire hazard, as peat fires can burn almost indefinitely, even underground, provided there is a source of oxygen. When fire takes over, the natural vigilance on CO2 storage of forest and peatlands loses its essence. In 1997, a massive fire resulted in CO2 emmissions as large as the whole of Europe in a year.

As the damage to peatlands is irreversible, Care aims at preventing by improving watermanagement. ‘Watermanagement is key if we want to improve resilience and decrease risks’, says Nok van de Langenberg, senior DRR officer at CARE. ‘An extensive hydrology study told us to focus at the smaller canals, in stead of larger ones, as we planned initially. By building relatively modest sluices and dams, we can prevent further dehydration.’

Nok van de Langenberg emphasizes the necessity of a participatory approach. ‘Both village planning and the involvement of local authorities and companies are crucial for longterm sustainability, he says. ‘The population of Kalimantan is growing, and unless we give them an alternative to generate income, the slash and burn practices will further destroy what is left of the peatlands.’

More about the project: SLUICES
Photoreport 'The human face of climate change'

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WETLANDS INTERNATIONAL
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ITC

The International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) and DRR

The International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) works together with universities and research institutes in developing countries to reduce the risks of climate change. ITC provides a wide variety of courses related to DRR

Currently, various projects related to DRR have been completed or are running. These include projects aimed at the implementation of an application (DACA) which determines the present value of expected annual losses and the amount of casualties for different flood scenarios, projects focusing on multi-hazard risk assessment in tsunami affected countries and its use for early warning and disaster management (SCRATCH), and a project aiming at the institutional capacity building in DRR in Georgia. See the ITC website for an overview of these ongoing research projects.

The ITC also works together with governmental and non-governmental organizations. Staff of international NGO’s are trained in basic GIS skills for Disaster Management during a 2 week course. Yet to continue such projects, the ITC is looking for partnerships with international NGO’s interested in using GIS for disaster management.

For more information: http://www.itc.nl/unu
Links to more information:
ITC Overview of our ongoing research projects on disaster risk reduction

Wageningen University and Research Centre

Disaster Risk Reduction at WUR

At Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), the chair Disaster Studies combines academic teaching and research with a desire to enhance policy discussions and local and international responses to disaster and conflict. Working together with both humanitarian NGO’s, as well as other knowledge institutions, DRR mainly gets attention through education. Courses are being provided on climate disasters and on natural hazards and disasters, with considerable attention being paid to climate adaptation. Another course addresses conflicts, which include climate conflicts.

Research on DRR is carried out in various PhD programmes, such as PhD research on food security in Ethiopia and India, and research on water management in deltas with a focus on floods in Mozambique. In addition, the WUR is involved in the organisation of various DRR related events, such as a highly successful conference in February this year with DRR and climate change as a prominent theme. Together with the MARE Institute of the University of Amsterdam, WUR organised an international Policy Day on the social and developmental aspects of climate change and uncertainty in deltas, at the beginning of July. Additionally, the WUR participates in a major EU-funded project, led by CARE. This project focuses on integrating climate change adaptation, poverty reduction and disaster risk reduction strategies and guidelines in Bolivia, Mali and Indonesia.

Further information can be found on www.disasterstudies.wur.nl