In partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Stockholm Environment Institute in Boston (SEI-US) and Intercooperation, the Forest Conservation Programme developed a Community-Based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods (CRiSTAL), designed at integrating risk reduction and adaptation strategies into development projects and strategies. CRiSTAL helps stakeholders to:
- systematically understand the links between local livelihoods and climate;
- assess a project’s impact on community-level adaptive capacity, and
- make adjustments to improve a project’s impact on adaptive capacity.
CRiSTAL promotes the development of adaptation strategies based on local conditions, strengths and needs. The tool was field-tested during 2004-2006 in Mali, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka, before being applied for the first time in March-April 2007, as part of a Finland-funded Forest Conservation Programme climate change adaptation project in Zambia.
From 2008-2010, CRiSTAL will be used as part of a broader Forest Conservation Programme climate change adaptation project in Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. (To go to the Climate and Development Project, click here). The tool will also be used to mainstream climate change adaptation in other IUCN interventions across the globe, including the Livelihoods and Landscapes Strategy. (To go the Livelihoods and Landscapes section, click here). CRiSTAL training workshops have been organized by IUCN members and partners – IISD and CARE International – in Mozambique and Ghana in 2007, and a third one is planned for francophone Africa in 2008.
