Valuing the Climate Change Response Plan, Local Governance, and Sustainability in Juan Lacaze communities

Summary

The local institutionalisation of the National Climate Change Response Plan (PNRCC, in Spanish), together with the broad participation of social actors, will promote the integration of different management instruments.

The basis of the proposal is the integration of different management instruments from the local community (neighbourhoods, local social institutions), with support from the municipality, by means of the informed management of the local threats that climate change entails, disseminating the National Plan for Response to Climate Change to households.

The general objective is to strengthen local capacities (municipality, local organisations and vulnerable communities) in the understanding, assessment and updating of the concept of climate change in each locality, tending to actions of analysis, lobbying and advocacy in the design of prevention and adaptation activities. We had six months to implement this 2013 stage. Society applied and won a call from the Ministry of the Environment. After this experience others came that were interested in sharing.

Process

The starting point for reducing disaster risk to the impacts of climate change and climate variability and promoting a culture of resilience, lies in the knowledge of the physical, institutional, economic and socio-environmental threats and opportunities faced by the population. The effectiveness of local risk management and adaptation policies to climate change and variability depends mainly on the level of participation and direct intervention of the community, researchers and local decision-makers based on scientific information and social and cultural practices. The action strategy of the proposal was based on the organisation of awareness workshops for the different climatic events that threaten the local population, and their future projection, both in terms of the perspective of climate change and the development of the community's civil life. These activities aimed not only to make public the country’s National Plan for Response to Climate Change (PNRCC, in Spanish), but also to assess, analyse and design preventive, adaptation and attention actions at the local level, facilitating the broad participation of social actors and promoting the integration of different management instruments in the vulnerable neighbourhoods of Juan Lacaze.

Inclusion was conceived in the structuring strategy with the different key actors. Thus, local government, educational institutions and neighbourhood commissions actively participated, establishing a platform for the dissemination of local information (on the quantified local risks for Juan Lacaze) and the PNRCC proposal on strengthening inter-institutional links and raising public awareness of PNRCC In this case study young people played a major role. We worked with teachers and young people from a secondary school in the production of a documentary about floods in the city and the impact of climate change. This task involved training in documentary filming techniques and specifically on the floods in the city, rescuing the knowledge and history of Juan Lacaze in the floods experienced.

The activities were adapted, coordinating with local actors.

Impact

The initiative has continued. Risk and vulnerability identification processes were developed through the Views from the Frontline study and workshops for the development of PUPA for the city. A regional project was carried out that involved both sides of the River Plate, with Juan Lacaze being one of the cities of study, generating a wealth of basic information to offer informed continuity to the whole community. Currently, the city of Juan Lacaze has applied as a resilient city of UNISDR.

The integration exercise carried out in Juan Lacaze served to analyse the extent to which the new national land use law, departmental guidelines, and ordinances and precautionary measures can contribute to the comprehensive planning of the territory in reducing vulnerability and the impact of climate change. Action measures were identified such as green space systems, partial plans in risk areas and local emergency plans, rainwater plan, education campaigns, calcification and land use patterns, multiple strategic centres, etc. Community-focused activities were carried out in coordination with local authorities. All the current and future information generated has been made available for use in planning and in the territorial planning roundtables soon to be set up.

Other

The activities at Juan Lacaze's secondary school were carried out in coordination with the principal, teaching staff and the students. The production of a documentary of Juan Lacaze and its floods, made in workshops over the course of a week, with 10 interviews, film mode, is a living document, generated from the educational space. Community organisation, the necessary preventive actions not always based on facts, the solidarity of the people from Juan Lacaze, their communication networks, and their daily practices, emerged. These interviews have the value of being conducted by young people who did not necessarily know the reality of the fishermen, or the poorest and most vulnerable families to flooding.

Summary

Process

Tell us about the extent to which the CBDRM intervention was ‘owned’ by the community. Were local skills and knowledge used? What was the role of the local government? How were the CBDRM activities coordinated? By whom?

To what extent were the most marginalised and at-risk groups included in the CBDRM process? Focus on women, children and youth, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Are there any other marginalised groups in your society who were included in the CBDRM activities?

Were the CBDRM activities adjusted in any way to account for changing priorities and/or contexts in the community? If so, how? Think about mechanisms to monitor changes and learn from the activities, and who this monitoring and learning is coordinated by.

Impact

Please reflect on how well the initiative has been able to continue beyond the end of the programme. To what extent were local resources used for the CBDRM activities? How long since programme completion have the CBDRM practices continued?

Please describe how lives have changed since the CBDRM project. Think about different people’s levels of resilience and vulnerability.

Other

Please provide us with any other information you think will highlight the sustainability of your particular CBDRM project. Feel free to add relevant pictures, photos, graphs or anything else that may highlight the sustainability of your project.