ABOUT APAN

 

Background

 

1. Climate change – along with degradation of natural ecosystems, pollution and other environmental change – is a significant burden and threat to human development and poverty alleviation efforts. Adaptation to climate change is part of development; but to build adaptive, resilient societies, development as business as usual will be inadequate to address future needs and challenges.

 

2. Anticipating and responding to new, often challenging, conditions in sustainable and cost‐effective ways requires the application of knowledge from a wide range of sources. But sharing science and knowledge among diverse types of stakeholders is difficult because of differences in language, perceptions, and interests, and there are constraints on capacity and knowledge to adapt to future climate change. Moreover, as an emerging area, adaptation communities and initiatives are growing and therefore management of adaptation knowledge and connecting stakeholders in more systematic ways are needed. In addition, there are also major constraints in developing countries i.e. often a large “adaptation deficit” – insufficient capacity and actions to successfully adapt to current climate or for the future.

 

3. Addressing these needs, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) under the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) is fostering generation and sharing of knowledge and best practices on climate change adaptation.

 

4. The Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) is a regional programme for managing and applying adaptation knowledge in the region, and supports governments and other organisations working on adaptation, with special emphases on the management of knowledge and capacity building.

 

5. APAN activities are carried out by the Institute of Global Environmental strategies (IGES), Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) located at Asian Institute for Technology (AIT), and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) representing two programmes coordinated by The UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and merged as one programme in 2011.

 


 

Mission and Purpose

 

1. The mission of APAN is to build climate change resilient and sustainable human systems, ecosystems and economies through the mobilisation of knowledge, enhanced institutional capacity and informed decision making‐processes, and facilitated access to finance and technologies.

 

2. The purpose is to equip key actors in Asia and the Pacific Region with adequate knowledge for designing and implementing climate change adaptation measures, building capacity to access technologies and finance in support of climate change adaptation, and integrating climate change adaptation into policies, strategies and plans.

 

Specific Objectives of APAN

 

  • Improve understanding and knowledge of adaptation to past, current and future climate conditions;

 

  • Enhance capacities to apply knowledge to assess technologies, access finance, and design and implement actions on adaptation; and

 

  • Strengthen the ability to integrate adaptation into development policies, strategies, and plans.

 

Structure of APAN

APAN operates through its regional hub located in Bangkok. Sub-regional activities of APAN are carried out by the sub-regional nodes and thematic nodes of APAN located in the five sub-regions of Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and the Pacific. The sub-regional nodes operate with the help of national implementing partners located in the countries falling within each sub-region. The core partners are Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) located at Asian Institute for Technology (AIT), and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). UNEP ROAP acts as the secretariat in charge of Steering Committee and for providing technical inputs to APAN.

 

Nodes

Central AsiaRegional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC)

 

Northeast AsiaKeio University (Keio)

 

PacificSecretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment
Programme (SPREP)

 

South Asia Climate Action Network for South Asia (CANSA)
Southeast Asia Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI)

 

 

Thematic Nodes

WaterGlobal Water Partnership (GWP)

 

MountainInternational Centre for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD)

 

AgricultureSoutheast Asia Regional Centre for Graduate Study
and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA)

 

 

 


Geographic Scope

 

The five sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific covered by APAN are:

 

  1. Central Asia,
  2. Northeast Asia,
  3. Pacific,
  4. South Asia, and
  5. Southeast Asia.