Connecting Global Priorities Biodiversity and Human Health

enhance preparedness towards the adverse
impacts of disasters (UNISDR 2004).
Conventionally, attempts at DRR have focused
on the protection of people and infrastructure
through zoning and/or using “hard” engineering
solutions, such as dams, levees and sea walls.
As described in the chapter on water, these
infrastructures are often expensive to build and
operate, can generate unforeseen environmental
and social consequences and – in many
cases – have fallen short in the performance of
their protective duties (ProAct 2008; Badola and
Hussain 2005; Sudmeier-Rieux and Ash 2009). In
light of this realization – and the changing nature
of disaster events described above – a search for
alternative means of reducing disaster risk has
opened opportunities for increased attention to
ecosystem-based management approaches.
The ecosystem-based approach to DRR recognizes
and seeks to investigate and use the potential of
biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services
to support the ability of communities to reduce
and adapt to risk in an integrated and sustainable
manner. It has been described as one of the few
approaches that can impact all elements of the
disaster risk equation: reducing exposure and
vulnerabilities, and increasing the resilience of
exposed communities and their assets (PEDRR
2013).
Ecosystem engineering solutions – based on
ecosystem services that use natural and/or
managed ecosystems – comprise an integral
component of ecosystem-based strategies and have
become increasingly popular, particularly since the
2004 Indian ocean tsunami (ProAct 2008). This
disaster, in particular, highlighted the potential
protective capacities of coastal forests and brought
mangrove rehabilitation and conservation to the
forefront of the environmental agenda in South-
East Asia (Giri et al. 2008). At the global scale,
an increasing number of United Nations (UN)
agencies and international nongovernmental
organizations (INGOs) have since expanded their
UNDP BANGLADESH / FLICKR
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