Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas Initiative

Through this project, IISD along with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), with support from Global Affairs Canada, will work with local communities, traditionally marginalized groups, women, and national and local authorities to design and implement concrete gender-responsive, conflict-sensitive, nature-based solutions for adaptation in and around protected areas and critical landscapes.

The CAPA Initiative seeks to:

• tap into the potential of nature-based solutions to support local communities in adapting to climate change while safeguarding critical ecosystems and biodiversity in and around protected areas;

• better integrate climate adaptation considerations into the management of protected areas; and

• allow more women, in all their diversity, and marginalized groups to participate in the design and implementation of nature-based solutions for adaptation and in climate-resilient management plans for protected areas.​

The project is being implemented across four landscapes:

• In Belize it will address water security concerns, improve biodiversity and hydrological functions, stabilize and enhance degraded soil and provide ecosystem services to local communities.​

• In Fiji it will promote sustainable fisheries, safeguard locally managed marine areas, train local communities, preserve functional and healthy ecosystems and improve flood mitigation, nutrient cycling, and the provision of downstream ecosystem benefits to coral reefs and adjacent coastal habitats.​

• In the Greater Virunga Landscape (Uganda) it will focus on nature-positive livelihood interventions and restoration of agricultural lands adjacent to protected areas and the establishment of tree nurseries and beekeeping.

• In the Kavango-Zambezi Landscape (Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe) it will promote the restoration of forest cover, restocking wildlife, strengthening indigenous forest systems and stabilizing headwater, riverine, and functions on natural lagoons wetlands to enhance ecosystem integrity and biodiversity.​