Coral Triangle Countries Launch Cutting Edge Climate Change Adaptation Guidebook

Dili, Timor-Leste – More than 30 representatives from the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste - gathered in Dili on May 29-31, 2013 to launch a new guidebook that will help coastal communities in the region adapt to the growing threats of climate change.

The guide called Climate Change Adaptation for Coral Triangle Communities: A Guide for Vulnerability Assessment and Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) is a comprehensive set of cutting-edge scientific and social instruments that local governments and communities can use to conduct climate outreach to their constituents. It can be used to help communities assess their vulnerability to climate change and help them form their own climate change adaptation plans that address local conditions.

The guide, developed through funding from USAID’s US CTI Support Program, provides critical scientific information in a practical and user-friendly format and has been widely adopted in its pilot sites such as the Nino Konis Santana National Park in Timor-Leste, Verde Island Passage in the Philippines, Kei Islands in Indonesia, the proposed Tun Mustapha Park in Malaysia, Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea, and Western Province in the Solomon Islands.  The US CTI Support Program is managed by USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia.

“The guide is one of the key tools that CTI, with the participation of Timor-Leste, has developed to reduce the decline of the region’s marine resources and increase the social and economic resilience of coastal communities to climate change,” said Lourenço Borges Fontes, Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Timor-Leste and head of the Timor-Leste CTI National Coordinating Committee. “It brings the policies we have adopted at the regional and national level to the communities who are at the front lines of climate change.”

In Timor-Leste, USAID supports CTSP’s work with local communities in Com, Tutuala and Lore to better prepare for and adapt to the threats of changing climate. Using some of the tools for local-scale vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning which are being launched today, communities in Timor-Leste have been able to identify which resources they rely on the most, which are most vulnerable to climate change impacts, and take important first steps to adapt to changing conditions.

"The Coral Triangle is one of the world's most extraordinary marine environments," said Judith R. Fergin, U.S. Ambassador to Timor-Leste. "The threats that human activities poses for its fisheries and biodiversity are immediate.  The threats that the smallest climatic variation poses are deadly.  Congratulations on your far-sighted leadership in the effort to reduce the human threats and to prepare maritime communities to cope with the likely costs of climate change. The six nations engaged in the Coral Triangle Initiative have shown they have the foresight and the will to tackle the sources and consequences of climate change.  The United States is proud to be part of your endeavors."

The Timor-Leste Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in collaboration with the CTI Interim Regional Secretariat organized the workshop to launch the guide with funding and technical support from USAID’s US CTI Support Program which includes the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, and the Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP) composed of Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund.

The CTI, a multilateral partnership formed by the six Coral Triangle countries, aims to safeguard the region’s marine and coastal resources considered the world’s epicentre of marine biodiversity. Scientists warn that by the year 2030, as much as 90% of coral reefs in the Coral Triangle Region will be threatened by overfishing, pollution and climate change.