Why climate resilience is vital for Tajikistan’s future

Assessing risk and vulnerabilities

A crucial step towards increasing resilience and adaptive capacity is understanding where the biggest vulnerabilities and risks are. Having this information is key to adopting adequate measures to build resilience.

Many areas in the Tebalay watershed region are prone to flooding and landslides and require immediate attention. With UNDP’s support, a detailed assessment of the region has been carried out, using satellite imagery to map potential risk zones as well as safe havens that can be used in emergencies. To compliment this work, an early warning system is being developed to improve flood response times, based on techniques that have been put in place in Japan.

Developing an integrated and inclusive action plan

The climate crisis is a crisis of interconnected systems. Since its impacts reach every aspect of our society, the way in which we respond to the climate crisis needs to be equally comprehensive, integrated, and inclusive.

UNDP is facilitating local authorities in the watershed area to develop an integrated management plan that will help reduce the incidence and impact of flash floods, landslides, and mudflows on local infrastructure, ecosystems, and agricultural livelihoods. The integrated plan seeks to manage all human activities and natural resources together, across all sectors, while considering the environmental, societal, and economic contexts. Importantly, a wide cross-section of stakeholders – from civil servants to the private sector to local communities – is being consulted and involved in the development of the plan, working to reach a consensus around the necessary interventions.

The plan also focuses on gender issues, which is particularly important as women and men have different needs and vulnerabilities when it comes to climate impacts. They also can hold different parts of communal knowledge and capacity that is essential for strengthening resilience.

Investing in infrastructure

Resilient infrastructure is another key component of meeting the challenges raised by climate change.

Under the Japan-funded initiative, several infrastructure investments are being made to strengthen the resilience of local communities in the area. Heavy machinery was purchased to help with canal cleaning and building flood protections. In addition, galvanized wire nets and concrete blocks will be deployed to strengthen the river’s banks while pastures with high erosion risk will be fenced to prevent further degradation.

Protecting livelihoods

Just transition needs to be at the centre of efforts to reshape societies to be low-carbon and climate-resilient.

Many people living in in the Tebalay watershed area depend on its resources – water, pastures, lands, and forests – for their livelihoods. Helping them manage the resources sustainably and develop ownership over the long-term sustainability of the area is essential to building resilient communities that can better withstand the hazards and shocks caused by climate change. Additional equipment provided under the Japan-funded initiative will help improve irrigation and sustainable agriculture practices.

Overall, approximately 75,000 people in the region are expected to benefit from the actions under these four pillars, through safer habitats and improved agriculture-based livelihoods, while 125,000 will benefit indirectly from lower risk to being exposed to flash floods and mudflows. But many in Tajikistan, and in other countries with similar conditions, remain at risk.

In October 2021, Tajikistan submitted its updated NDC, setting an unconditional emissions reduction target of 30-40 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2030 and defining 27 lines of action on adaptation, across five crucial sectors. Considering its national circumstances, these are ambitious goals that pave the way for the country’s low-carbon and climate-resilient development.

Only by securing international support and climate finance for initiatives that continue to reduce vulnerabilities and increase the country’s resilience with investments in research, planning, infrastructure, and livelihoods, can we ensure that Tajikistan reaches its goals.

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Japan considers that the climate crisis is a threat to all humanity and, in cooperation with UNDP, leads countries to accelerate their climate action.

In 2021, UNDP launched a new phase of Climate Promise – From Pledge to Impact – aimed at translating NDC targets into concrete action. Japan is the largest supporter of this phase and joins longstanding partners such as Germany, Sweden, the European Union, Spain, and Italy and new partners such as the United Kingdom, Belgium, Iceland, and Portugal to accelerate these efforts.