IPCC Report.pdf - Adam Curry

Case StudiesChapter 9to be removed and over 50 remained at risk. The participants’ riskreduction plans highlighted the removal of garbage and large rocks aswell as the building of barriers. The plans also identified public entitiesfor partnership and the costs for services required. The training closedwith a workshop on climate change and with the community leaders’presentation of the major risk reduction lessons learned (SCSCDD,2008c). On international disaster risk reduction day, representatives ofthe community, Civil Defence, and other public entities visited the mostat-risk areas of the hill community, planted trees, installed signs pointingout risky areas and practices, distributed educational pamphlets, anddiscussed risk. One of the topics of discussion was improper refusedisposal and the consequent blocking of drains, causing flooding(SCSCDD, 2008d).In 2004, typhoons resulted in flooding in urban areas of Saijo City(Ehime Prefecture of Shikoku Island, Japan). There were also landslidesin the mountains. As a result, a public awareness campaign wasimplemented. Saijo City, a small city with semi-rural mountainous areas,faces challenges in disaster risk reduction that are relatively unique. InJapan, young people have a tendency to leave smaller communities andmove to larger cities. The result is that Japanese smaller towns haveolder than the national average populations. Since younger, ablebodiedpeople are important for community systems of mutual aid andemergency preparedness, there is a special challenge. Saijo City has anurban plain, semi-rural and isolated villages on hills and mountains, anda coastal area and, hence, is spread over a mix of geographic terrains(Yoshida et al., 2009; ICTILO et al., 2010); this brings another challenge.In 2005, the Saijo City Government launched a risk awareness programto meet both of these challenges through a program targeted at schoolchildren. The project for 12-year olds has a ‘mountain-watching’ focusfor the mountainside and a ‘town-watching’ focus for the urban area(ICTILO et al., 2010). The students are taken, accompanied by teachers,forest workers, local residents, and municipal officials, on risk-educationfield trips. In the mountains, the young urban dwellers meet with theelderly and they learn together about the risks the city faces. Part of theprocess is to remember the lessons learned from the 2004 typhoons.Additionally, a ‘mountain and town watching’ handbook has beendeveloped, a teachers’ association for disaster education was formed, akids’ disaster prevention club started, and a disaster prevention forumfor children was set up (Yoshida et al., 2009; ICTILO et al., 2010). This isan example of a local government both conceiving and implementing theprogram. The city government led a multi-stakeholder and communitybaseddisaster risk awareness initiative that then became self-sustaining.Professionals from disaster reduction and education departments wereprovided through government support. The government also funds thetown and mountain watching and puts on an annual forum (ICTILO etal., 2010).The Centre for Environment Education (CEE) Himalaya is undertaking adisaster risk reduction and climate change education campaign in 2,000schools and 50 Kashmir villages in the Himalayas. In the schools, teachersand students are involved in vulnerability and risk mapping throughrapid visual risk assessment and in preparing a disaster managementplan for their school. Disaster response teams formed in selectedschools have been trained in life-saving skills and safe evacuation (CEEHimalaya, 2009).CEE Himalaya celebrated International Mountain Day 2009 with educatorsby conducting a week-long series of events on climate change adaptationand disaster risk reduction. About 150 participants including teachersand officials of the Department of Education, Ganderbal, participated inthese events (CEE Himalaya, 2009). Participants worked together toidentify climate change impacts in the local context, particularly in termsof water availability, variation in microclimate, impact on agriculture/horticulture and other livelihoods, and vulnerability to natural disasters.The concept of School Disaster Management Plans (SDMPs) wasintroduced. Participants actively prepared SDMPs for their schoolsthrough group exercises, and discussed their opinions about villagecontingency plans (CEE Himalaya, 2009). Some of the observations onimpacts of climate change in the area discussed by participants includedthe melting, shrinking, and even disappearance of some glaciers andthe drying up of several wetlands and perennial springs. Heavydeforestation, decline and extinction of wildlife, heavy soil erosion,siltation of water bodies, fall in crop yields, and reduced availability offodder and other non- timber forest produce were some of the otherrelated issues discussed (CEE Himalaya, 2009). Participants watcheddocumentaries about climate change and played the Urdu version of‘Riskland: Let’s Learn to Prevent Disasters.’ They received educationalkits on disaster risk reduction and on climate change, translated andadapted for Kashmir (CEE Himalaya, 2009).9.2.14.4. Lessons IdentifiedThe main lesson that can be drawn from the various initiativesdescribed above is that effective DRR education does not occur in a silo.As the examples from Japan, Brazil, and the Himalayas illustrate,successful programs actively engage participants and their widercommunities to elicit risk-reducing behavioral change (Shaw et al., 2004;Wisner, 2006; Bonifacio et al., 2010). Lessons on actively engagingparticipants include:• Assessing community risk, discussing risk with others, and joininga risk-reducing activity in school or community forums provideopportunities for active learning. Engaging children and communitymembers in vulnerability and capacity assessments has been foundto be effective in disaster risk reduction and adaptation programs(Twigg and Bottomley, 2011; see Himalaya example).• Interactive lectures with visual aids can be effective in buildingknowledge (Shaw et al., 2004; see teacher training in Indonesiaexample) and should be followed up with discussion with peersand family – and action – beyond the classroom (Shaw et al., 2004;Wisner, 2006).Additional lessons of good practice illustrated above include:• Integrating climate change information into DRR education andintegrating both into various subject matters is simple and effective.528