WOTR’s presence at Conference of Parties (COP22), Marrakech, Morocco

WOTR participated at the 22^nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that took place in Marrakech, Morocco from the 7^th to 18^th November 2016.  Representatives from 196 countries participated this year.For those who may not know, the COPs were introduced and implemented to guide the efforts of countries that are Parties to the Convention to address climate change.

At the Conference, WOTR co-organised a side event titled:“Scaling up Best Practices” on 7^thNovember 2016 along with World Vision International, Cornell University, Adelphi Research and UNDP. At the event, Dr. Marcella D’Souza, presented WOTR’s experience on ‘Climate Proofing Watersheds and livelihoods in semi-arid India’. She focused on the Community Driven Vulnerability Evaluation tool (CoDriVE-PD) developed by the WOTR team. Till date, it has been used to identify the vulnerabilities of the communities and their resource base in 180 villages in 3 states of India. Other experiences shared by her were on adaptive sustainable agriculture and locale specific agrometeorology and water budgeting. The application of these tools, technologies and methodologies help build the adaptive capacities of communities in the face of climate variability. This session was well attended by the delegates. Crispino Lobo  was the moderator of this side event.                  The link to the presentation delivered by us will be shortly uploaded .

We also co-hosted an exhibit from the 7^th to 18^th November 2016 with Climate Action Network International (CAN International) and World Vision International (WVI). At the exhibit, we showcased our work in the arena of the methods and technologies adopted keeping climate variability in mind.

In addition to the events mentioned above, various relevant experiences and views of participants were documented by the “Climate Change Studio” at COP22. Crispino Lobo, shares  WOTR’s work on Climate Change Adaptation and its challenges and some ways forward .

As Mr.Lobo pointed out , collaborative partnerships at all levels are important as  ” no single association however big can address the challenges that climate change is throwing at us in the long term”.COP22  was a great platform to showcase our work, cross learn and build partnerships with like minded organisations.