UNEP actively supports partnerships and networks in order to build a global community of decision makers, advocates and practitioners who integrate ecosystem management solutions for disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and development strategies.
Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction
UNEP is a core founder of the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR), a global partnership of 23 organizations that promotes ecosystems management as a key strategy to enable vulnerable communities and countries reduce disaster risk and build resilience to disasters and climate change.
Members include:
- Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)
- Council of Europe
- Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC)
- Global Risk Forum
- International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- ProAct Network
- Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
- Swiss Helvetas Intercooperation
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
- UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR)
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- United Nations UniversityInstitute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
- World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
UNEP and EC Partnership
The European Commission (EC) and UNEP are collaborating on a project (2012-2016) that seeks to promote, innovate and scale-up ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) interventions in vulnerable countries and regions and raise greater recognition of Eco-DRR globally.
This project is supported through the Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA) between the EC and UNEP, covering 2011-2013 Environment and Natural Resources Thematic Programme (ENRTP) priorities managed by the Directorate General of Development and Cooperation (DG DEVCO). Project outcomes and outputs contribute directly to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, namely the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. This project also leverage other recent global decisions on linking ecosystem services and DRR, adopted by Members States of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Global in scope, the project intervenes in three regions (Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean), implementing Eco-DRR demonstration projects in four countries: Afghanistan, Haiti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan.
UNEP and UNDA Partnership
From 2016-2017, UNEP is collaborating with the UN Development Assistance (UNDA) Programme to implement a project on Integrated Strategic Environmental Assessments (ISEA). The ISEA is based on the successful experience of implementing the approach in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, shortly after the end of its 30-year civil war in 2010.
The ISEA approach seeks to enable Government Ministries to make decisions more efficiently and strategically on proposed development projects during post-crisis recovery and reconstruction, while ensuring environmental safeguards and disaster risk considerations were factored in decision-making. Through this new project, UNEP is aiming to develop more practical experiences on ISEA in post-crisis contexts, by building national capacities in two other countries – Nepal and Cote d’Ivoire - and promoting learning exchanges on ISEA best practices in the Africa and Asia region.
