Applying Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) for the sustainable and resilient development planning in the Koh-e Baba mountains, Afghanistan

The project aimed to reduce flood and avalanche risks and increase resilience in a mountain region in Afghanistan by promoting improved ecosystem management through a bottom-up landscape approach. Green and resilient development plans were first created. In 7 villages, tree nurseries were established and 235,380 tree cuttings were planted in selected hazard-prone areas to reforest and rehabilitate degraded slopes. Capacity on sustainable management and DRR was also built at the local, provincial and national level.

 

The project took an Eco-DRR approach by addressing hazards (flood and avalanche risk), exposure and vulnerability to disasters through land use planning, ecosystem-based measures and disaster preparedness. The hazards and impacts involved are climatic hazards which are increasing due to climate change. Thus the ecosystem-based measures put in place also enable adaptation. While sustainable environmental management activities are both EbA and Eco-DRR, the framework is Eco-DRR.