Climate change and its impacts as well as adaptation strategies to reduce regional vulnerability are key concerns and major drivers of local and global activities throughout the world. In particular in a situation of faltering international climate negotiations and the lack of coherent and effective adaptation strategies to sustain vital ecosystem services in most regions, intense direct collaboration between partners at the sub-national level between the global North and South is inevitable to face the challenges.

The alarming recent study "Social Dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development" (NEPAD) presented by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon made irrefutably clear that the converging global food, financial and energy crises, and climate change have eroded economic and social gains made in Africa over the past decade. Adverse social consequences are likely to remain for much longer in Africa, even after the recovery gathers pace in advanced countries. The report also recognizes that climate change is already having a major impact on the ability of Africa to feed its people, protect them from the vagaries of nature, grow its economies and preserve its environment. The report contains some recommendations to enable Africa to grow its economy without harming the environment, including by investing in renewable energy and clean energy, and increasing financial assistance and technology transfer to strengthen the continent’s adaptive capacity and pursue sustainable low-carbon growth strategies. It suggests that the international community should assist African countries in addressing the challenge of climate change by raising the resources needed to support adaptation and mitigation action.

Similar results have been highlighted with regard to ecosystems and their services in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) that identified climate change as a major driver for ecosystem degradation worldwide and in particular in Africa.

In its 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) summarizes that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents due to its multiple social, economic and political stressors and the expected changes in precipitation patterns, sea-level and extreme events. The IPCC (2010) views in particular the coastal cities of Eastern Africa as well as its highlands as highly vulnerable vis-à-vis climate impacts such as sea-level rise and lacking water availability.

Coastal regions as well as entire river basins are both substantially affected and crucial in mediating processes of climate change. Coastal regions are affected by climate change through various processes. Sea level rise, changing water temperatures and shifts within concentration patterns of chemical compounds cause severe impacts on sensitive ecosystems (coral reefs, mangroves) and subsequently on the use of resources (fisheries). Coastal regions are the hot spots of urbanisation processes and are at the same time threatened by floods and extreme weather events (see e.g. Klein et al. 1998, Harley et al. 2006, Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2007). Comprehensive strategies and adequate measures in order to adapt to and to mitigate climate change are still lacking and constitute a major challenge for transdisciplinary research on coastal regions. The research focus of the Clim-A-Net project amalgamates on several research areas and combines knowledge from resource assessment, landscape ecology and the field of biodiversity with insights from environmental data management, GIS, environmental economics and social sciences, such as the adaptation and mitigation research in vulnerable regions.

References

• IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) Climate Change 2007: Working Group II: Impacts, Adaption and Vulnerability, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Harley, C. D. G., A. R. Hughes, K. M. Hultgren, B. G. Miner, C. J. B. Sorte, C. S. Thornber, L. F. Rodriguez, L. Tomanek, and S. L. Williams (2006) The impacts of climate change in coastal marine systems. Ecology Letters 9:228-241.
• Hoegh-Guldberg, O., P. J. Mumby, A. J. Hooten, R. S. Steneck, P. Greenfield, E. Gomez, C. D. Harvell, P. F. Sale, A. J. Edwards, K. Caldeira, N. Knowlton, C. M. Eakin, R. Iglesias-Prieto, N. Muthiga, R. H. Bradbury, A. Dubi, and M. E. Hatziolos (2007) Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. Science:1737-1742.
• Klein, R., M. Smit, H. Goosen, and C. H. Hulsbergen (1998) Resilience or vulnerability: coastal dynamics or Dutch dikes? The Geographical Journal 164:259-268.
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington D.C.
• United Nations (2010): Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. Report of the Secretary General, UN E/CN.5/2010/3