Summary

Solution Category: Resilience 4 Cities

Background and Objective

Fiji, located in the Pacific Ocean's cyclone belt, experiences frequent cyclones and with them damaging winds, rain and storm surges. Being mountainous in its interior, Fiji’s cities and towns are mainly located on the coast and along rivers and as a result are particularly exposed to cyclones, storm surges, coastal and riverine erosion, landslides and already occurring sea level rise. Mangrove deforestation and coral reef extraction to accommodate urban development and for reasons of income generation are increasing the vulnerability of urban areas to coastal hazards, as both mangrove forests and coral reefs provide effective barriers against storm surges and cyclones. Informal settlement residents in towns and cities are particularly at risk. In addition to climate change having an impact on the living environment of many informal settlement communities, it also poses a risk to existing livelihood practices.

Actions and Implementation

UN-Habitat, in partnership with the Ministry of Housing and Community Development and the Ministry of Local Government, and the Climate Change Unit of the Government of Fiji implements the Supporting the most vulnerable communities in building adaptive capacity against climate change and disaster risks project, with a budget of US$4.2 million, implemented over four years. The overall objective of the project is to increase the resilience of informal urban settlements that are highly vulnerable to climate change and disaster risks. The project aims to work with vulnerable urban communities to conduct vulnerability assessments for the participating settlements and to produce actions plans and strategies for implementing climate adaptation actions within communities.

Conclusion

Read more: https://spark.adobe.com/page/4cyN86xFKwXLc/ Website: https://unhabitat.org/fiji