Sample Chapter - United Nations University

THE RELEVANCE OF ECOSYSTEMS FOR DRR 11
on-farm tree planting and planting in shallow pits, to improve soil and
water retention. Three decades later, hundreds of thousands of farmers
have replicated, adapted and benefited from these techniques, significantly
increasing local resilience to droughts. In Burkina Faso, more than
200,000 hectares of drylands have been rehabilitated, now producing an
additional 80,000 tons of food per year. In Niger, more than 200 million
on-farm trees have been regenerated, providing 500,000 additional tons
of food per year. Women have particularly benefited from the improved
supply of water, fuelwood and other tree products (Reij et al., 2012).
In Ethiopia, since the 1980s the government and local communities, together
with the World Food Programme (WFP), have been implementing
a sustainable land management and rain catchment programme known as
MERET (Managing Environmental Resources to Enable Transitions to
More Sustainable Livelihoods), which has vastly increased food production
and mitigated the impacts of drought and floods. The programme has
increased the food security of MERET households by 50 per cent, reduced
the average annual food gap from 6 to 3 months, rehabilitated
1 million hectares of land, and reforested 600,000 hectares (WFP, 2010).
A programme evaluation in 2005 found that the return on investment
averaged more than 12 per cent for the main activities implemented
through the programme.
Finally, well-managed, healthy ecosystems are better able to support
the post-disaster recovery needs of communities, such as accessing safe
drinking water, as illustrated in the case of Negril, Jamaica (Chapter 5 in
this volume).
That sustainable ecosystem management provides multiple social,
economic and environmental benefits – regardless of whether a disaster
occurs – is what we regard as a “no-regret” investment. Aside from hazard
mitigation and enhancing local resilience to disasters, ecosystems
contribute to national gross domestic product, poverty reduction, food
security, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Chapter 2 elaborates further
on these issues.
Gaps that need addressing
At times, there is contradictory or misperceived evidence on the role of
ecosystems in DRR. For example, the role of vegetation in protecting
coastal areas against erosion or the impacts of storm surges is well established.
However, evidence of the role of coastal vegetation in buffering
against extreme events such as cyclones or tsunamis is much sparser. Following
the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, peer-reviewed journal articles
contradicted each other with respect to the effect of coastal vegetation in
reducing the impacts of tsunami waves (see, for example, a discussion