Videos & PhotoStories

  • Vital Programme: Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC)

    The Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Australian Government (AusAID), with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as its implementing agency and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) as implementing partner.

    The PACC Project is working in Pacific Island countries to promote climate change adaptation in key development sectors. The 3 sectors are: 1) food production and food security, 2) coastal management and 3) water resource management.

    Supporting improvements in these sectors, the PACC project is working to build resilience to climate change. Adaptation projects are now being implemented nationally in: Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands focus (Food Production and Food Security); Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, Tokelau and Vanuatu (Coastal Management); and Nauru, Niue, Republic of Marshall Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu (water resource management).

    For more information refer to: UNDP-ALM PACC Profile or SPREP's PACC Page

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  • Essential Adaptation: Planning for Climate Change

    The fourth smallest nation in the world - Tuvalu - consists of nine low-lying islands with the landmass of 26km2 in the vast ocean of the South Pacific. While most news headlines on climate change tend to emphasize, quite rightly, the existential threats on this tiny nation from sea-level rise, there are many other aspects of climate change impacts that have received less attention by the international community than they deserve, but have extraordinary impacts on communities' vulnerability.

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  • Silent Tsunami

    This project was identified by the National Adaptation Programme of Action of Bhutan as a national priority to address the adverse impacts of climate change. Its goal is to enhance adaptive capacity to climate change-induced disaster impacts in Bhutan. As a contribution to the achievement of this goal, the project objective is to 'reduce climate change-induced risks and vulnerabilities from glacial lake outbursts in the Punakha-Wangdi and Chamkhar Valleys.' 

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  • PACC Vanuatu: Vital Roads

    Vanuatu, as one of the participating PACC countries, is improving the roading infrastructure on Epi Island to reduce climate-related risks. Epi's inhabitants depend on local transport infrastructure to transport their crops to market, their sick to hospital, and to connect to the outside world. By relocating coastal roads, rehabilitating sea walls, and protecting the coastline through re-vegetation of native species, these long-term adaptation measures are preserving livelihoods and improving climate resilience.

    The Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change Project in Vanuatu is a combined effort of: AusAID; Global Environment Facility - SCCF; Government of Vanuatu; Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP); and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from UNITAR C3D+ Programme.

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  • Video: Working Towards Water Security in Mongolia

    Listen to what the 97-year old herder Mr Tseren Dashtseren has witnessed over the last half century in the Eastern Steppe of Mongolia. Herders like him will, with support from this project, devise ways to cope with environmental change in this region; they will work to determine how pasture management affects water availability and quality, and what they can do to secure essential water and pasture resources for generations to come. By reviving their centuries-old nomadic tradition, herders will develop techniques to rotate their herds so that pastureland is conserved, sufficient crops can grow, and precious water is protected. Pilot initiatives for regenerating forest and grasslands, and protecting water sources will be established for expansion in other areas of the country to help people benefit from the support that biodiversity can provide.

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  • Documentary from Northern Pakistan: Lurking Mountain Tsunami

    The short documentary tells the story of the vulnerable community living under risk of GLOF in Northern Pakistan.

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  • PACC Tuvalu: Vital Water

    With the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) acting as the Executing Agency and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the Implementing Agency, the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project is working in 14 Pacific Island countries to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to the adverse effects of climate change. With funding from GEF's Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), AusAID, and additional co-financing at the national level, PACC projects throughout the Pacific are integrating long-term climate change risks into coastal management, food production and water resource management.

    As an atoll nation, Tuvalu is very much affected by changes in rainfall distribution patterns. With limited groundwater, people on Funafuti atoll depend heavily on rainfall to supply all their water needs. A period of two to three weeks of no rainfall can cause serious water shortages, reducing water levels in many of the water tanks by 50%. The current water infrastructure is not able to cope with changes in rainfall regime, which has an adverse impact on village livelihoods and agricultural production. The PACC project in Tuvalu focuses on improving the water infrastructure, to assist people to better cope with climate related droughts.

    The Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change Project in Tuvalu is a combined effort of: AusAID; Global Environment Facility - SCCF; Government of Vanuatu; Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP); and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from UNITAR C3D+ Programme.

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  • Bangladesh - Building Mangrove Greenbelts Vulnerable Coastline

    Bangladesh's location makes it one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to environmental disasters. Its giant network of rivers and vast low-lying flood plains make it both fertile and subject to erosion from flood, drought, and storms. As a result, protective coastal greenbelts, in the form of natural vegetation, can make the difference between life and death during severe weather and increasingly frequent, and deadly, cyclones. Mangrove forests, in particular, are critical to providing this necessary defense thanks to their intricate root systems.

    UNDP is working with the Government of Bangladesh and local communities to plant mangroves along the southern delta's coastline. The programme is doing this by training local people to run mangrove nurseries and manage forests and then paying them, a move that will have benefited 5,000 families by the end of 2010.

    "Many countries are recognizing the value of coastal greenbelts when it comes to protection against storm surges, swell waves and inundations," said Firoz, who has been receiving training in nursery management in Char Kukri Mukri. "It's very important I think to pick the right varieties, the right species and also to involve the communities in the plantations and the maintenance and the management of the plantations."

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  • Bhutan Video: Himalayan Meltdown Trailer

    Revealed: The Himalayan Meltdown is a 45-minute documentary film co-produced by the UN Development Programme, Discovery Asia, and Arrowhead Films. The movie examines the human development impact of the glacial ice melt on communities in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. It shows the plight of the affected countries and the ways they are adapting, adjusting and preparing for tomorrow’s inevitable changes in the Himalayan glaciers.

    It features innovative fog-catching in Nepal, man-made glaciers in India, views of life in the changing plateaus of China, and pioneering UNDP climate change adaptation projects in Bhutan and Bangladesh. Technological advances from leading glaciologists, experts at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and UNDP offer insights into what is in progress and what still needs to be done for countries to address the Himalayan ice melt.

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  • CBA Bolivia - Semillas del Futuro Vol.1

    Recovery of tarwi (Lupinus Mutabilis S.) seeds in four communities of the Carabuco Municipality near Lake Titicaca

    CUNA Association

    The Carabuco Municipality has been suffering, for the last ten years, from the effects of climate change, such as the increase in average annual temperatures, unpredicatable patterns and intensity of rainfalls, and the emergence of new plagues and pests. The four communities, HUAJASIYA, CAVINCHILLA, TILACOCA AND COJATAPAMPA, have insufficient knowledge of these effects on their productive systems. Thus, they have not gotten the chance to take necessary and timely adaption measures to reduce their vulnerability against climate change impacts. Most of the agricultural production, such as potatoes, faba beans, barley, quinoa and a certain kind of oats that are cultivated in the zone, is intended solely for their own consumption. Therefore, food insecurity problems augments in the project area.

    In response to these problems, the UNDP supported Community-Based Adaptation project supports the recovery of the tarwi seed (lupinus mutabilis) in four communities of the Carabuco Municipality that surrounds the Titicaca Lake. The local seed, Tarwi, is high in nutritional value and is a cheap source of vegetal protein (44.3%), and has the ability to adapt to adverse and variable conditions, turning it into a marginal cultivation. Through the project's activities, the appreciation of tarwi and its promotion through ecotype quality seeds, local varieties, as well as the experimentation with other varieties, have increased the communities' knowledge on adaptation, comparative value, and productivity of their agriculture. Additionally, the community members and its environmental leaders are trained to promote, in the municipal level, the knowhow and best practices on adaptive natural resource management, the different advantages of increasing the production of tarwi crops through the use of certified seeds, as a way to reduce the inhabitant's vulnerability.

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