Ecosystems Protecting Infrastructure and Communities (EPIC)

Using ecosystem-based approaches to protect communities from disasters and impacts of climate change

EPIC is a five year initiative that is promoting the implementation of ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction through 5 Case studies in Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Nepal, Senegal and Thailand. The project is contributing to community resilience by:

1. Documenting scientific evidence
2. Building capacities to understand vulnerabilities and take action by using best practices
3. Promoting effective policies for integrated approaches to disasters, climate change and environment management.

Climate Change and Disasters: Working together to find a nature-based solution

During the past few decades the number of disasters and their impacts on communities worldwide has increased steadily. With climate change, this trend is set to continue, with an expected increase in the number of extreme weather events. Healthy ecosystems can be important allies in reducing risk and increasing resilience for people and the environment.

Saving Land : Combating land degradation in West Africa

Since 2013, as part of the EPIC initiative, IUCN has been supporting communities from south western Senegal and northern Burkina Faso. A key component of EPIC is the trustful, participatory approach with the involvement of the communities from the very beginning and inclusion of traditional practices.

3 Key lessons from EPIC for effective ecosystem-based approaches:

1. It is important to involve communities and valorise traditional knowledge to identifylocal strategies to cope with extreme events
2. Science and research is an important in informing and guiding effective strategies
3. To ensure scaling up of ecosystem-based approaches to risks, it is important to work with authorities to inform and influence policy at local and national levels.

The project is funded by the Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety’s International Climate Initiative. It is co-ordinated by IUCN that is working closely with the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), l’Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (France), the Mangrove Action Project (Thailand) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.

More information here