The last two decades have witnessed a surge in water mediated risks with around 90% of natural disasters being attributed to hydro-meteorological extreme events. The world is witnessing an increase in incidence of floods, droughts, storm surges and other associated secondary disasters and this trend is likely to intensify due to climate change. Modifications brought about in structure and functioning of ecosystems by humans has further affected nature’s inbuilt resilient mechanism, rendering the inhabitants more vulnerable to the perils of these hazards.
Taking cognizance of the issue, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Ramsar Regional Center – East-Asia (RRC-EA) and Wetlands International South Asia (WI-SA) collaborated to organize a consultation workshop on ‘Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR)’ from 7-9 June, 2022 in Jeju Province, Republic of Korea. The objective of the workshop was to explore ways in which wetland ecosystems which play an important role in both pre and post disaster resilience building can be managed for achieving disaster risk reduction.
Wetland experts, site managers and Ramsar focal points from 13 countries participated in the event with discussions majorly focused on Eco-DRR and wetland management challenges and solutions, sharing of experiences and good practices, review of draft Eco-DRR guidelines for wetland managers and development of action plans for including Eco-DRR within wetlands management planning and execution.
During the workshop, a series of lectures were delivered by Ms Nathalie Doswald (UNEP), Mr Dhruv Verma (WI-SA), Mr Norman Emmanuel C. Ramirez (RRC-EA) and several other experts related to the concept of landscape approaches for Ecosystem based Disaster Risk Reduction, wetland ecosystem services and management planning. It was followed by a session where draft Eco-DRR guidebook for wetland managers was presented and peer-reviewed in a carousel manner by the participants for bringing conceptual and methodological improvements.
One of the major outcomes of the workshop was that it enabled Ramsar focal points and wetland managers appreciate the Eco-DRR approaches and endorsing Eco-DRR guidebook for real-time application in wetlands management.
The workshop was followed by a public seminar on Ecosystems and Disaster Management where role of wetlands and other ecosystems in disaster risk reduction was discussed with nearly 100 senior school students.
Contact: Dhruv Verma at [email protected]