Pilot adaptation project in Uruguay

Raul Pierri in Upside Down World via IPS: Fighting the front line battle against global warming, with the participation of all sectors of society, is the cornerstone of a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) pilot project in Uruguay that is drawing attention from the rest of the world.

The idea is to identify the most vulnerable areas and design mitigation and adaptation strategies, based not only on expert opinions, but particularly on the input of all the people involved, project coordinator Federico Ferla told IPS. "Strategies will be developed through participatory working methods, unlike the few projects that have been carried out so far, mostly in industrialised countries, where in general teams of experts just hand over a report to be considered by the authorities," he said.

"The process will be participative, with the involvement of relevant actors at the local level. Naturally experts and authorities will play a leading role, but so will representatives of the private sector, non-governmental organisations, universities, local representatives of international bodies, public enterprises and local communities," he said.

The UNDP project is supported by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and implemented through the Support to Territorial Networks (ART) programme, an aid plan that links UNDP with local and national authorities.

…These three provinces, which include the metropolitan region of the capital city, "have great socioeconomic weight, with about two million people (in a country with a population of 3.3 million) producing around two-thirds of GDP," Ferla said.

…The three provinces selected represent a fairly broad spectrum of Uruguay's main vulnerabilities to climate change. They face risks from rising sea levels, for instance, which pose an important threat in coastal areas and wetlands. "Social vulnerability is also a problem. The area includes most of the country's informal urban settlements (shanty towns) which are home to over 150,000 people," says Ferla….

Satellite image of Rio del Plata, NASA