Vision
Island communities are leaders in resilience, ensuring that coastlines, livelihoods, and biodiversity flourish for generations to come, and are able to adapt to rising seas and evolving climate hazards.
The Challenge
Just 1% of the world’s population resides in Small Island Developing States, yet they are responsible for stewarding around 40% of the world’s coral reefs and 25% of all oceanic Exclusive Economic Zones, in many cases relying heavily on the ocean or local natural resources for their economic prosperity. Many islands are leaders in marine conservation and champions of global climate action despite having limited social and economic resources.
Most island residents live near coastlines or low-lying areas that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate hazards and related disasters. While contributing negligibly to the root causes of global climate change, many of these islands are on the front lines of climate change, facing the first major population-wide forced migrations (e.g. Tuvalu, the Maldives, due to sea level rise). A systemic lack of sustained funding, staffing, and data at appropriate scales contributes further to small islands falling farther behind in meeting their adaptation goals.
Mission
Local factors affecting exposure and vulnerability are not well integrated into products that often only focus on broader climate and weather hazards. What is needed to fill this gap is an impact-driven and community-informed risk and resilience initiative, through:
- More resilient island communities
- Enhanced local capacities
- Decision-makers’ access to timely and improved climate data & forecasting tools
Local stakeholder collaboration to deliver climate solutions and adaptation strategies.
Approach
Our approach to provide island communities and decision makers with the information and technical capability needed to prepare for and adapt to a changing climate applies a tailored approach based on the needs of each location or sector. Existing products and resources are often not developed at appropriate scales for small islands and coastal communities, who face significant social, economic, and physical challenges due to a changing climate. In addition, our islands-based approach offers long-term outcomes, such as early warning systems, that are intended to extend the impact of the project beyond the funded period.
