Programme Cooperation Agreement 2014: Final Report for the Period 01 January 2014 to 01 March 2015

4 Adaptation to Climate Change

4A Climate Change and Security in EECCA region

UNEP and GRID-Arendal are partners in the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) Phase II. 15 Its goal is to contribute to the reduction of environment and security risks through strengthened cooperation among and within countries in four regions: Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus, and South-Eastern Europe. GRID-Arendal is responsible for theassessment component in the project entitled ‘Climate change and security in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus’ which is part of a bigger EU-funded package, as well as contributing funding as a project consortium partner. The objective of the project is to facilitate ENVSEC-trademark participatory assessments of links between climate change and security in the three regions, highlighting hotspots, and presenting the assessment results in a visual and practical format. The results of the regional assessments will also be used to produce a cross-regional picture of climate change- security issues and linkages. Two draft assessment reports, on Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus based on background studies, have been prepared and are currently under review by partners. The third, on Central Asia, is in preparation by UNDP, and will then be finalised by GRID-Arendal. The project will continue into 2015, due to extended activities by partner organizations. 4B Enhancing the resilience of pastoral ecosystems and livelihood of nomadic herders During 2014, GRID-Arendal together with international partners – the International Centre forReindeerHusbandry (ICR), the Association of World Reindeer Herders (WRH), local partners in Mongolia and the Russian Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – continued to develop a proposal for a multi-million dollar GEF project. UNEP’s Project Review Committee has approved the project and it is currently pending submission by UNEP to the GEF Secretariat. If funded by the GEF, this will be the largest international collaboration project focusing on reindeer husbandry, Indigenous Peoples and the environment. The project objective is to develop methods and skills to conserve and enhance biological diversity and reduce pasture degradation in selected areas of reindeer herding inRussia and Mongolia, while enhancing livelihood resilience and sustainability of nomadic herder communities. 15. The ENVSEC Initiative - Phase II is part of UNEP Subprogramme 2: Disasters and conflicts. With a view to its upcoming Chairmanship of the Initiative, UNEP presented to the inter-agency Management Board an outline of strategic objectives for 2015, which include water, disaster risk reduction and climate change and security.

Former GRID-Arendal Managing Director Peter Prokosch and Johan Mathis Turi from the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry sign a new cooperation agreement in August 2014. Photo: Robert Barnes, GRID-Arendal

Promoting best practices in the co-management of natural resources with the equal involvement of reindeer herders and government administrations is an increasing focus of the Nomadic Herders’ project. In 2014, the project organised a field visit for a group of 15 Russian and Mongolian reindeer herders and decision makers to the Laponia World Heritage Site in Sweden, enabling the participants to learn about a unique form of governance that allows for biodiversity objectives and traditional livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples such as reindeer husbandry to co-exist successfully. This is a model that could be transferred to other reindeer herding regions. During GRID-Arendal’s 25th Anniversary celebrations in August 2014, GRID-Arendal and ICR signed a new agreement to continue cooperation on nomadic reindeer husbandry in Mongolia and the Russian Far East. In Mongolia, the project has also been working to increase the institutional capacity of the reindeer herding community (the Dukha), which is the smallest indigenous group and ethnic minority in Mongolia. Pilot activities are being implemented to establish the Dukha Reindeer Information Centre in Tsaganuur, northeast Mongolia. These include granting scholarships for students of reindeer herding families to interview their family members and document traditional knowledge about biodiversity, reindeer, land use and food culture. In addition, the project is piloting satellite-based internet connection for the centre, in order to connect Dukha herders to the outside world, and to other reindeer herders across the Arctic through social media. The project is also undertaking a feasibility assessment on the import of reindeer from Russia, in order to boost

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