The Pacific region is extremely vulnerable to climate change. The most substantial impacts of climate change include losses of coastal infrastructure and land, more intense cyclones and droughts, failure of subsistence crops and coastal fisheries, losses of coral reefs and mangroves, and the spread of diseases. Climate change will affect the Pacific way of life and the sustainable development of our islands in profound ways.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a strategy for adapting to climate change that harnesses nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. EbA was officially defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as “the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change”. EbA options protect vulnerable communities from climate impacts whilst providing a range of social, economic and ecological benefits.

The Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation Tool (Pacific EBA tool) provides decision support for planning for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) initiatives in the Pacific. It provides guidance on the types of EbA interventions that may be considered depending on different local circumstances and requirements across the region (split into themes of sector of focus, ecosystems and climate impact being adapted to).

The Pacific EBA tool is an web-based tool designed to support users in identifying a range of potential EbA option to address on-ground climatic impacts in the Pacific. This is an informative tool that can be applied in countries of the Pacific to:

• Understand and analyse linkages between sectors, ecosystem sand climatic impacts to identify potential EbA options
• Identify relevant EbA options for a sector, ecosystem and expected climate impact, and explore their use in the Pacific and globally
• Review Pacific region case studies specific to each EbA option 
• Refer to a repository of open resources that can be used for EbA uptake. 

** V. Jungblut/SPREP