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Enhancing Climate Resilience of Three Coastal Communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo

GEF-UNDP

By IW:LEARN

February 22^nd, 2019

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with its 40 kilometres of coastline is facing erosion due to the combined effects of topography, sandy soil and the ocean. Different national reports on coastal vulnerability clearly indicate that land, biodiversity, socio-economic infrastructure, and community livelihood will be seriously affected by coastal erosion. With the increasing rate of shoreline retreat, the proportion of lands lost to encroaching sea will double.

To deal with this situation, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has funded an UNDP coastal project of strengthening the resilience of Muanda’s Communities from Coastal Erosion. The aim of the project is to support local communities capacity to cope with climate risks in coastal areas and their awareness of the coastal vulnerability in the context of climate change. Through a participatory and systemic approach, the project will revolve around the integration of information on climate risks in the relevant planning policies, and investment in the protection and surveillance of the coastal zone against climate risks.

Barriers to achieve this goal are: i) lack of operational risk management system, ii) weak institutional and technical capacity to generate real-time weather information for the management of an early warning system, and iii) limited financial capacity to protect local communities and coastal infrastructure of climate risk and disaster.

The capacity of climate risk management

Climate change enhances coastal erosion by sea level rise and altered ocean dynamics (including height and direction of the swell, tide height, current velocity, and frequency of storms). The three highly affected communities of Nsiafumu, Muanda and Banana have been chosen to receive support in managing their adaptation activities to minimize the effects of the erosion.

The main activity is to sensitize stakeholders by using scientific evidences that coastal regions are losing 1 metre each year because of the sea level rise. In the shot-term, a plan has been developed to adapt the coastal zone to sea level rise and fight erosion by laying down blocks on the coastline.

In the long-term, the five-year Kongo Central province development plan has been updated to include further information on risks related to coastal erosion, adaptation strategies, and protection of the coastal zone.

Measures of urgent and immediate adaptation

The project is also developing systems for weather forecasting and climate monitoring, including the establishment of an early warning system. The early warning system has already been commissioned and a series of contracts for the management of the system have been signed.

The early warning system consists of an ocean buoy that collects data. It was acquired by the project and has been made available to fishermen to prevent disasters on the high seas. The system has an application to analyse data and produce weather alert bulletins for fishermen.

Alternative activities to fisheries are implemented, and the below five resilience practices have been adopted by a total of 1,500 members of supported associations :

The preservation of mangroves by using improved stoves for households;
Increased resilient pisciculture for youth and women's associations;
Improved seeds for market gardening were provided;
Support for communities through the distribution of goats and chickens; and
Implementation of a market, a drying area for fish and a dock.

In total, DRC can expect to see the reach of its coastal zone reduced by 50 to 100 metres by 2100. With the rate of shoreline retreat that is likely, it is expected that the road between Banana and Muanda will be completely lost between 2050 and 2100.

For sustainable banks protection, communities have adopted to planting locally adapted species of trees and grasses. The extraction of gravel and cutting of mangroves for charcoal has also been prohibited.

Through a participatory and systemic approach, the UNDP/GEF coastal project is helping to increase the capacity of DRC government and local communities to cope with climate risks and their awareness of the vulnerability of coastal areas in the context of climate change.