Risk assessment

The purpose of the current report is to provide baseline information to the project staff and partners, to facilitate subsequent working steps, such as stakeholder consultations, climate risk and vulnerability assessments, and the prioritisation of adaptation options. The report has been compiled based on accessible secondary data. In depth stakeholders’ consultations and firsthand data collection were not undertaken as part of the report preparation.

There are a multitude of limiting factors preventing ecosystems, communities, organisms and individuals from adapting to change. Ecological and physical limits comprise the natural limitations to adaptation, associated largely with the natural environment, ranging from ecosystem thresholds to geographical and geological limitations.

This review assessed the suitability of various frameworks, approaches and tools for conducting vulnerability assessments, for use in the EU funded IUCN project “Building Resilience to Climate Change in Coastal Southeast Asia”. In particular their suitability for use at the provincial, community, and household/individual levels of analysis was emphasised.

This report presents a rapid assessment of the vulnerability to climate change of coastal habitats and selected species in the eight focal areas of the IUCN project ‘Building coastal resilience in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand’: Koh Kong and Kampot (Cambodia), Chanthaburi and Trat (Thailand), and Ben Tre, Can Gio, Kien Giang and Soc Trang (Vietnam).

The Mediterranean Sea is a virtually enclosed basin that is frequented by three sea turtle species. In the last three decades the interest in sea turtles in the Mediterranean has continuously increased, motivated by a growing concern for these threatened animals. There has also been a great interest and need to develop adequate knowledge about their threats and about the biological and ecological parameters that are relevant for their conservation.

Biological invasion, an issue of growing importance due to the significant increase in international transportation and trade, can disturb the balance of local ecosystems and even destroy them. This collection of papers presented at the International Conference on Assessment and Control of Biological Invasion Risks held in August 2004 at Yokohama National University discusses risk assessment, risk management and eradication.