Workshop Goal and Objectives
The goal of the workshop is to catalyze new initiatives in North Africa for regional collaborations to advance climate change adaptation research, assessment, data and information sharing, training, education, policy planning, and coordination between all stakeholders.
Workshop Objectives:
1. To identify sectors, systems, and/or places within the Maghreb region where society is most vulnerable to climate change (i.e., "climate change hot spots");
2. To identify thresholds of identified "hot spots" beyond which potentially "dangerous" changes (to society) will occur;
3. To explore adaptation options and strategies in systems and sectors nearing their threshold(s);
4. To explore potential barriers to adaptation that may limit societies' ability to adapt to climate change and opportunities for overcoming these barriers;
5. To explore metrics useful for estimating the short and long-term impacts of climate change and climate change adaptation (monetary and non-monetary) to help decision- makers evaluate adaptation options and strategies; and
6. To explore opportunities and barriers to adaptation offered by different forms of institutional governance.
Outputs and Achievement of Objectives:
The overall objectives of the ACCMA workshop are to enable the Maghreb countries to response effectively to climate change risks by applying rigorous scientific assessment techniques, encouraging information collection and sharing, and identifying required capacity building programs. These responses should be targeted toward the most vulnerable regions and sectors where capacity building is needed.
To achieve such objectives the following three outcomes are expected to be produced:
1- Better understanding of scientific advancements in the sciences of climate change, possible vulnerabilities, ecological and socioeconomic impacts, and benefits and costs of adaptation and mitigation strategies;
2- Enhancement of scientific assessment techniques, data collection, information sharing, and identification of relevant capacity building programs in the Maghreb countries. This outcome include creating multi-disciplinary teams to evaluate Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings related to the Maghreb region and address their specific implications; and
3- Improvement of national communication networks between academic, policy makers, and grass roots communities to enable successful adaptation and mitigation strategies and formulating of specific plans of actions.
For each of the intended outcomes, we will identify indicators to measure performance. For each of these outcomes we will characterize baseline levels and present measures of the possible path to success by relevant climate change strategies, programs, projects, and activities. To explore, identify, and design these measurement indicators, the Workshop on Climate Change and Adaptation in the Maghreb (CCAM) activities will include:
- Presentations of the scientific findings by the workshop participants and discussion on the quality of these scientific outputs;
- Demonstrations of developed assessment methods appropriate to the specific climatic, demographic, and socio-economic characteristics of the Maghreb countries;
- Initiation and establishment of networks between academic, decision-making, and community organizations leaders;
- Creation of network between individuals and/or institutions to initiate south to south capacity building activities;
- Paving the level ground for North African actors to engage internationally, on a same playing field levels, on issues related to climate change assessments and climate change adaptation and mitigation studies;
- Discussion on appropriate and innovative methods and technologies to be considered and used to develop national and regional decision making plans and implementation relevant to climate change adaptation in the Maghreb region;
Producing specific recommendations and guidelines on climate change monitoring methods and climate change strategies;
- Outlining frameworks for future needed studies on climate change impact on ecosystems, biodiversity, and quality of life as well as studies on integrated environment management strategies;
- Assessments of short, medium, and long term vulnerability to the increased climatic volatility in the Maghreb region; and
- Evaluation of the relationship between climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies on one hand and poverty reduction strategies on the other hand.