A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

5Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiativesThe themes of concern to many multilateral United Nations environmental conventions are of greatimportance in Central America. These issues are the increasing occurrence of drought and desertification,protecting biodiversity, preservation or re-establishment of wetlands and the anticipation of thesocio-economic consequences of global climate change. Basically, as all of these concerns have crucialrelationships with risk and disaster reduction concepts, the synergy between them is of growing importancein the region. Potential changes in rainfall patterns, increased hurricane incidence and strength,the loss of ecological resilience and natural ecosystem protection, rising sea levels, coastal degradationand the loss of mangrove swamps, presage new risk conditions in the future, and the need for newadaptive, mitigation and prevention schemes, implemented on an incremental basis.IUCN has worked throughout Central America to broaden its role in risk reduction and to coordinatewith risk specialists in promoting project activities. The promotion of synergies between multilateral environmentalconventions has led to more appreciation of the close relationships that exist between efforts topromote community adaptation and resilience to the natural environment and to reduce the risks of disasters.A forum organized by the Ministry of the Environment in El Salvador in October 2001 was builtaround these concepts and it sought to achieve more common understanding and to explore opportunitiesby which adaptation practices could be applied in different zones of the country.but are implemented through national policies,strategies, action plans and laws. Moredetails on some of these instruments can befound in chapter six.Existing legal instruments and ongoing workon sustainable mountain development are alsopertinent to disaster reduction. For example,the Alpine Convention of 1989 places someemphasis on natural hazards and addressesland use planning, soil and landscape conservation,water management, forests and farming.Specific obligations to reduce the impactsof natural and manmade disasters, includingland use planning, watershed management,Klang River (Malaysia) Flood Mitigationand Environmental Management ProjectFunded by the Asian Development Bank and undertaken underCBD, the project objectives are to improve environmental conditions,including those that worsen flooding, through an integratedriver basin approach that addresses environmental and economicdevelopment needs, and reduce the adverse socio-economic andenvironmental impacts of flooding in the Klang river basin. Someof the considerations affecting environmental management andflood mitigation are integrated river basin management, solidwaste management, sediment trapping, tributary corridorimprovement and flood forecasting and warning systems.and early warning, are foreseen in futureregional mountain ecosystem agreements.These issues will be dealt with throughout2002, as mountains are the theme of the 2002ISDR campaign.Disaster reduction goals can also be integratedinto non-binding instruments such as regionalstrategies for biodiversity or the implementationof Agenda 21. In this regard, the NewPartnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD),an initiative to promote the socio-economicLegislation dealing with wetland protectionThe purpose of wetland protection legislation isusually to minimize the degradation of wetlandsand to preserve the beneficial values of wetlands.This means that for development activities, alternativesto wetland sites or limiting wetland damagemust be considered. Such provisions usuallyapply to acquisition, management, and dispositionof land and facilities, construction andimprovement projects, activities and programsaffecting land use, including water and relatedland resources planning, regulation, and licensingactivities. Valuable information producedincludes detailed wetland maps, studies andreports on wetland characteristics, documentationof compliance and consistency with floodplainmanagement programs.The China National Wetlands ConservationAction Plan finalized in 2000 is an example of aspecific environmental legislation supporting disasterreduction.210