Event

 Adaptation to climate change is a complex process, which can be characterized as decision-making under uncertainties. It entails the assessment of risks and opportunities associated with climate change for the natural environment as well as human society, identification and appraisal of adaptation options, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of adaptation interventions. Adaptation planning and practices involve multiple stakeholders, require knowledge and expertise from multiple disciplines, need to address specific needs at multiple levels and in multiple sectors/systems. Therefore, successful adaptation policies and actions are necessarily dependent on effective knowledge management to provide the sound information and knowledge base.

Despite the proliferation of knowledge management initiatives and their associated products (e.g. online platforms and portals etc.), major gaps in the provision and delivery of accessible and practical adaptation knowledge exist. This has partially hindered progress towards implementation of concrete adaptation policies and practices. The lack of collaboration between the producers and users of adaptation knowledge was often pointed out. In addition, the collaboration between those mandated to produce and/or disseminate knowledge has been identified as a key barrier to effective knowledge support for adaptation on the ground.

One focus event was devoted to the collaboration on knowledge management in the Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum on 21-22 Oct 2010. The participants of the focus event agreed to discuss further on the issue.