Disaster prevention

Globally, disasters due to natural hazards takes an enormous toll in terms of human lives, destruction to crops and livelihoods, and economic losses. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has therefore become a critical part of sustainable development strategies. Over the past decades, the role of healthy ecosystems in providing cheap, reliable protection against natural hazards has been increasingly recognized.

Globally, disasters due to natural hazards takes an enormous toll in terms of human lives, destruction to crops and livelihoods, and economic losses. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has therefore become a critical part of sustainable development strategies. Over the past decades, the role of healthy ecosystems in providing cheap, reliable protection against natural hazards has been increasingly recognized.

Sponsored and co-organized by the World Bank Europe and Central Asia Disaster Risk Management team, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the purpose of this workshop was to share best practices and experience in innovative and state-of-the-art hydrometeorological services and their use in disaster risk reduction mechanisms that are effectively protecting lives, livelihood, and assets.

This report is a product of cities' and local governments' efforts to protect their cities and make them safer and productive places to live and work. Today, with more than half of the world’s population living in urban areas, building resilience to natural hazards has become a pressing challenge that cannot be ignored.

This paper is a UNISDR contribution towards effective Drought Contingency Planning (DCP) for stakeholders and partners implementing drought risk reduction programmes in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). It attempts to convert findings, concepts and guidelines into a guidance document from critical gaps to bridge general drought preparedness, contingency planning and early response.

The objective of this study is to provide an analysis of the current level of integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in the region, with an emphasis on the policy and institutional environment. The report outlines some of the barriers to integration and makes recommendations on how they can be addressed.

This Handbook for Local Government Leaders provides mayors, governors, councillors and others with a generic framework for risk reduction and points to good practices and tools that are already being applied in different cities for that purpose. It responds to the following key questions: WHY building disaster resilience is beneficial; WHAT kind of strategies and actions are required; and HOW to go about the task.

The 2012 UNEP Year Book spotlights two emerging issues that underline the challenges but also the choices nations need to consider to deliver a sustainable 21st century— urgently improved management of the world’s soils and the decommissioning of nuclear reactors.

Essays in this publication offer perspectives and strategies to promote both environmental conservation and poverty eradication.