Reinforce resilience to climate change through an ecosystem-based approach (PEBACC+)

While the Pacific islands possess exceptional marine and coastal biodiversity, they are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This is explained mainly by their small size, their remoteness and their exposure to natural disasters. The increased pressure from human activities also threatens the ecosystems, on which the economic and social development of these regions depends.

Since 2015, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has been implementing a strategy of adaptation to climate change founded on the ecosystems of these Pacific islands. To reinforce the resilience of these regions, the FFEM is supporting the PEBACC+ project, which aims to develop and extend this innovative approach. 

The project has three components:

• Pursuing and strengthening the climate change adaptation strategy through Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) on Fiji, Vanuatu and the Soloman Islands;
• Supporting the implementation of a similar strategy in new regions, in New Caledonia and on Wallis and Futuna, taking into account local circumstances;
• Encouraging the sharing of experience and learnings to extend roll-out of EbA and NbS across Pacific countries and regions.

• Improving the effectiveness of ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solution initiatives through identification of the appropriate levers for change.
• Strengthening regional cooperation in the Pacific region to promote the development of constructive dialogue and operational solutions.
• Building and dissemination of methodological guidelines that can be easily duplicated in other locations
• Bolstering the resilience of island regions through innovative and sustainable ecosystem-based solutions.  

With support from the FFEM, the PEBACC+ project offers an innovative approach to adaptation to climate change based on ecosystems (EbA) in island regions containing significant urban centres. As a result of this initial experimentation in densely populated areas, the project demonstrates the effectiveness of EbA and NbS approaches to respond to the challenges of climate change in a range of intervention scenarios.

In addition, the project offers an innovative mechanism for upscaling, seeking as it does to integrate both EbA and NbS approaches into the strategic planning of the countries and regions involved in the project, which will promote and facilitate their take-up in other regions.