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Confronting the Adaptation Challenge in the World’s Largest Transboundary Conservation Area

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06 Dec, 2024

This post was originally published on Climate Links

Confronting the Adaptation Challenge in the World’s Largest Transboundary Conservation Area
jschoshinski
Thu, 12/05/2024 – 15:10

The Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) is the world’s largest transboundary conservation area, encompassing parts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The KAZA TFCA was created to conserve shared natural and cultural resources, safeguard biodiversity, and support tourism. Additionally, it promotes sustainable development and economic resilience for over three million residents who rely on its natural resources. However, the park is now threatened by rapid economic growth and climate change.

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Map of Africa showing KAZA TCFA region in darker color

The KAZA TFCFA.

To address the area’s climate risks, USAID’s Resilient Waters Program conducted a Livelihoods-focused Climate Risk Assessment to inform and stress test the KAZA TFCA’s Livelihood Diversification Strategy. Here is a summary of the assessment’s key findings and recommendations:

Findings

Drying Patterns

Prolonged dry periods threaten agriculture, which is vital for food security and income because rain is the primary method for irrigating crops. Extended droughts also lead to increased human-wildlife conflict as animals search for scarce water. Climate models predict more severe and prolonged dry seasons, which may endure weeks or even months longer than in the past depending on future warming rates.

Wildfires

Wildfire risk is increasing, with the fire season expected to lengthen from six to eight months. As fires occur under drier, hotter conditions, regrowth of woodlands becomes difficult, transforming forested areas into savannas. This shift affects communities dependent on forest resources. Fire management is particularly challenging in Zambia and Angola, where restrictions are less controlled.

Flooding

Seasonal floods are crucial for fishing, livestock, and recessional agriculture. However, proximity to waterways also brings risk, as seen in previous floods that displaced many of the KAZA TFCA’s communities and damaged infrastructure in 2003, 2009, and 2020. Using advanced hydro-climatic models coupled with high-resolution terrain models, the assessment shows expanded flood risk under future climate scenarios—affecting communities, tourist operations, and transportation infrastructure. This analysis is one of the first forward-looking flood analyses in the KAZA TFCA, mapping future inundation under different climate scenarios and flood levels. Alarmingly, extensive development has occurred in recent decades within the 1-in-100 year flood zone.

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Three columns showing difference in flooding across three emissions scenarios

Spatial extent of inundation under 1-in-10 (a), 1-in-100 (b), and 1-in-1000 (c) year flood events in 2020 (left column), moderate emissions scenario (RCP4.5) in 2050 (middle column), and high emissions scenario (RCP8.5) in 2050 (right column).

Extreme Heat

Extreme heat will affect all aspects of life in the KAZA TFCA, including labor productivity, livestock health, fish preservation, and even tourism, as thermal comfort thresholds are increasingly surpassed. By mid-century, the frequency of extreme heat days could rise three- to four-fold, including during peak tourist season, which could make the KAZA TFCA less attractive for wildlife tourism.

Taken together, the assessment found that drying patterns will grow more pervasive, reduce the reliability of rainfed agriculture, and significantly limit the range and abundance of non-timber forest products. New wildfire and flood zones will directly affect key tourist-related infrastructure and strand livestock and farm assets, while extreme heat will affect seasonal tourism numbers as well as labor and livestock productivity.

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Graphic with boxes connected by lines showing how climate impacts are connected to different outcomes

This impact chain shows the causal pathways connecting climate drivers to impacts in the tourist sector, informed by key stakeholder interviews.

Recommendations: Adaptation Strategies and Actions

Many resource-dependent livelihoods can persist with proper diversification and adaptation measures through a mix of government action and donor programming. To safeguard residents, authorities can provide financial incentives, support insurance options, offer technical support, establish flood and wildfire zoning, and expand fire detection and management efforts. Meanwhile, the KAZA TFCA and its partners are uniquely positioned to invest in climate-adapted livelihoods, such as sustainable tourism, nature-based carbon projects, and non-timber forest products. Advancing these livelihoods requires significant adaptation financing and landscape-level planning. The assessment co-developed nearly forty adaptation actions with the KAZA TFCA Secretariat and its network that would bolster the livelihoods and resilience of the area’s residents.

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To address the area’s climate risks, USAID’s Resilient Waters Program conducted a Livelihoods-focused Climate Risk Assessment to inform and stress test the KAZA TFCA’s Livelihood Diversification Strategy.

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Thu, 12/05/2024 – 12:00

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

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The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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