Media Tool Kit 1: Natural hazards are “naturally occurring physical phenomena” or risk elements inherent in the natural environment; an inevitable part of life on earth

This paper highlights the need in South Asia for basin-wide water allocation plans that include environmental requirements. This paper also describes the application of a basin planning model (i.e., Water Evaluation and Planning model or WEAP) to assess present and alternative water management options which incorporate environmental flows in the Upper Ganges River in India (total area: 87000 km2). The paper summarizes the environmental flow assessment methodology which was conducted through a multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach (Building Blocks Methodology or BBM).

The once beautiful foothills of Mount Elgon, in eastern Uganda are today seriously degraded, with excessive water run-offs and landslides becoming regular occurrences. Restoring the health and productive potential of the agroecosystem had become a dire need of those, mostly women, who stayed to farm it. By challenging the status quo and doing things differently, the Kapchorwa District Landcare Chapter (KADLACC) has been helping this farming community over the past fifteen years to manage its natural resources more sustainably, as well as more profitably.

This paper discusses methodologies applied in the Deduru Oya river basin, the basin selected from Sri Lanka for the regional study on the development of effective water management institutions. The study was funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist the five countries, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, China and Sri Lanka to work out methodologies and develop effective water management institutions (ADB-RETA 5812). The Deduru Oya basin in which the empirical studies were carried out is located in the northwestern province of Sri Lanka.

Assesses the effect (balance or imbalance) of the present relationships between the natural resource base and human activities; examines the role of some potentially destabilising forces, i.e, international markets, government programmes and socio-economic stratification; and reviews government's role in terms of its contributions to prudent natural resource management and options for the promotion of sustainable rural development.

CIFOR facilitated 27 communities in the Upper Malinau watershed to develop agreements about their village boundaries and map them through participatory methods. Decentralization reforms created new values of forest resources and uncertainties that increased conflict over local resources. We report on the nature of these conflicts, the stability of agreements and the factors affecting how agreements were reached.

This study identifies and prioritizes subbasins/watersheds in the middle and high mountains of Nepal that are significantly vulnerable to climate change. The approach of the vulnerability assessment framework of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was the guide for this study. The study is produced by consultants for the Building Climate Resilience of Watersheds in Mountain Eco-Regions in Nepal.

Building roads can bring new opportunities to remote and poorly developed areas, but for people whose land they cross, they can be very costly. This report covers a road building project in Cameroon, where farmers reacted angrily to a new road, especially as they were not properly compensated for their losses.