The EbA mountain project in Peru contributes to the enhancement of local and national capacities. The ecosystem-based adaptation in mountain ecosystems (EbA) project in Peru, among its activities, contributes to the enhancement of local and national capacities by providing training in analytical and decision-making tools that help better understand and address vulnerability of ecosystem services, through the use of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and enhancing local livelihoods. In order to do this, a series of capacity building workshops and activities will be taking place throughout the duration of the project. These activities are aimed at key local and national institutional actors directly or indirectly involved in the project. At local level, the project will identify what capacities need to be strengthened in local government actors, community leaders and members, as well as other members of civil society based in the Nor Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve (RPNYC), the pilot site of the project. 

One such activity took place in September 2012

On September 12^th - 14^th, 2012, the project, through the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), organized a three days course on "Community-Based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods" (CRiSTAL). The course took place in Lunahuana - Peru. Participants to the training represented governmental institutions such as the Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), the National Water Authority (ANA) and the National Service of Protected Natural Areas (SERNANP), with personnel from both the national central offices and from the Nor-Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve (RPNYC). Local community rangers also participated in this activity.

The objective of the course was to share knowledge and experiences in the application of community based methodological tools, such as Cristal and CVCA (Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis) that help identifying risks and adaptation options to climate change. The capacity building course also aimed at providing RPNYC professional and technical staff, tools that could be used to further analyse and plan with the community about where and what EbA options should be implemented, within the framework of the project.

The course looked at conceptual and methodological aspects of the application of CRiSTAL. Particularly, it focused on using Cristal for planning and management of climate change adaptation projects. Participants learnt about the importance of including in the analysis key aspects such as the identification of climate threats and their impact on community livelihoods. Course participants had the opportunity to see how CRiSTAL has been applied in different countries and contexts. It has been used especially in coastal communities, in Mesoamerica, but also in mountain areas in Cajamarca, Junín and Cusco, in Peru. Furthermore, participants had the chance to practice, with hypothetical cases, how to enter and run a first analysis of information.

By the end of the course, participants were already discussing how this tool, especially used jointly with CVCA, could be useful for the project. They were also indicating how they could use it in their everyday work activities. One of the community rangers mentioned that he would like to use CRiSTAL to look at people´s perceptions of climate change and risk´s, in the communities he workes with.  Finally, as IUCN later reported in a webpage report regarding this course, Pablo Douronjeanni, the project´s scientific advisor for UNEP, summarized what some participants had felt before and after the course: “Some of us knew about CRISTAL and were interested in applying it, but we needed to learn how to use it. This workshop was really good and helped us understand the logic behind the tool. This will make its future application easier”.

For more information, please contact:
Edith Fernandez, National Project Coordinator EbA in Mountain Ecosystem in Peru
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Course report in Spanish:
PNUD, PNUMA y UICN realizan taller de capacitación técnica sobre usos y aplicaciones de la herramienta CRiSTAL, en Lunahuaná, Perú, para valorar los efectos del cambio climático sobre los medios de vida comunitarios