In responseto the 2010 UNFCCC Cancun Agreements towards enhanced action on adaptation, Germany’s Federal Ministry for theEnvironment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) announced its support for an EbA Flagship Programme, jointly implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

 The Programme’s approach is to support countries’ overall local and national level adaptation strategies in helping rural vulnerable communities to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change through conserving, restoring and maintaining ecosystem services and biodiversity across a range of ecosystem types. The first and largest project under this joint flagship programme is the Mountain Ecosystem-based Adaptation project. This project is funded by the BMUB for 11.5 million euro and executed by UNEP, UNDP and IUCN in Peru, Nepal and Uganda. The project runs from 2011-2015 and is focused on working jointly with national, sub-national and local government authorities, centers of expertise, and local communities in order to reduce the vulnerability of the project countries, its ecosystems and communities to climate change impacts by promoting EbA options, with a particular emphasis on mountain ecosystems.

There are four components:

1.  develop decision-making tools for EbA, including for monitoring and evaluation, and for assessing resilience;
2.  field test the tools;
3. make investments in, and build capacity for EbA at demonstration sites; and
4. make the case for EbA to guide national policies and investments.

Currently, Vulnerabilityand Impact Assessments (VIA) have been completed for the pilot areas of the 3 countries. Prior to that a number of “no-regret” measures were initiated in the 3 pilot areas. “No-regret” measures refer to measures that do not worsen vulnerabilities to climate change.

 Nepal, Peru and Uganda