ALM UNDP

The vulnerability of the DMRD, combined with the likelihood of adverse impacts on the preservation of globally significant biodiversity, indicate an urgent need for all stakeholders to consider the impacts of climate change on plans to promote sustainable development in this area. By developing adaptive capacity and piloting adaptation approaches in the DMRD, the project will lay the groundwork for extending this experience to other vulnerable areas and sectors of the country.

The project’s overall goal is to assist Albania in establishing a mechanism by which strategies to moderate, cope with, and take advantage of the consequences of climate change are enhanced, developed, and implemented. The project’s specific objective is to build adaptive capacity in the DMRD to ensure resilience of key ecosystems and local livelihoods to climate change. This will be done by first identifying and then integrating climate change response measures into conservation and development programming in the DMRD. The project will largely build on the government’s recent efforts to increase the area under protection by expanding the geographic extent of the current protected area network. This provides for momentum to address climate risks under the reinvigorated regime of ecosystem protection. The project will implement coastal dune habitat restoration measures and modify protected area planning and coverage to help increase landscape connectivity and ecosystem resilience. The project will also take a landscape wide approach to adaptation that will go beyond the protected area network boundaries. By including climate threats, the scope and depth of the targeted conservation and sustainable development programmes will be modified to enhance the adaptive capacity of the ecosystem. This objective will be achieved through the following outcomes and subsidiary outputs:

Outcome 1. Capacities to monitor and respond to anticipated climate change impacts in the DMRD developed at institutional and community levels

• A system for monitoring climate change and its impacts on DMRD ecosystems is in place.
• Local government institutions have the capacity to analyze data on climate variability and associated ecological impacts and integrate this into decision making.
• Community capacity to understand the impacts of climate fluctuations and expected changes on natural ecosystems and local livelihoods is developed.

Outcome 2. DMRD regional conservation and development programmes, plans, and policies integrate climate change risks and take local pilot actions for coastal adaptation

• A package of amendments to biodiversity conservation activities within protected areas of the DMRD aimed at integrating adaptation measures is prepared and implementation started.
• A package of amendments to sustainable development activities in landscapes around DRMD’s protected areas aimed at integrating adaptation measures is prepared and implementation begun.

Outcome 3. Capacity for adaptive management, monitoring and evaluation, learning, and replication of project lessons developed

• Communication strategy and knowledge products developed.
• System for monitoring and evaluation of project impacts established.