Sustainable mountain development in East Africa in a changing climate

• Development of comprehensive publicity programmes for all stakeholders to raise awareness of the importance of mountain areas. Subsequent interventions could include the development and operationalization of guidelines for resource mobilization to facilitate increased investment in mountain areas, through actions that may include: • Carrying out comprehensive reviews of Public Investment Programmes in order to determine the proportions of investments that go to mountainous areas, both directly and indirectly; • Developing budgetary frameworks for Public Investment Programmes that endeavour to disaggregate investments destined for mountain areas, given the fact that there is a tendency to allocate more investments to lowland areas; and • Monitoring approaches at all levels to ensure that mountainous areas receive due attention in terms of investment allocations and programme implementation. Comprehensive assessment of the impacts of climate change in mountainous areas, and the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of mountain communities Mountain areas are among the most sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems to the impacts of climate change. The impacts of climate change on mountain ecosystems and communities may have far-reaching consequences including an increase in the incidence of disasters such as erosion and landslides, which in turn adversely affect the welfare of local communities. In some cases, the scale of these events may be beyond the resilience and adaptive capacity of the affected communities. A comprehensive assessment of such impacts and the abilities of communities and implementation

to effectively respond can help develop policy frameworks and guidelines, as well as determining the requirements for building the capacity of these communities to respond. Proposed intervention areas may initially seek to assess and determine the extent to which mountain ecosystems will be affected by climate change, on the basis of which appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures can be designed, through actions that include the following: • Identification of experts to undertake assessments including, and where possible, enhancing their capacity through training; • Identification of specific areas of study or assessment covering both ecosystems and development initiatives;

• Mobilization of resources for studies or assessments from different potential sources including the public and private sectors; and • Application of the results of the study or assessment to develop a comprehensive mitigation and adaptation framework in mountain regions. Secondly, intervention may seek to undertake a comprehensive study of the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of mountain communities to the impacts of climate change through: • Identifying resource persons to undertake the study and enhancing their capacity through training; • Identifying specific representative communities and activities for the study or assessment covering a range of social and cultural characteristics, ecosystems and development initiatives;

Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda

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