Bolivia

Since 2002, the direction of capacity development work undertaken by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has been guided by the Strategic Approach to Enhance Capacity Building, which was based on a comprehensive review undertaken in 1999 through the Capacity Development Initiative. The first pathway under the Strategic Approach was the National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA), which provided support to countries analyze their own capabilities in meeting their commitments under the three Rio Conventions on Biodiversity Conservation, Desertification and Drought, and Climate Change. A unique feature of the NCSAs was to analyze the underlying capacities that cut across these three focal areas, identifying their challenges and needs at the individual, organizational, and systemic levels.

Countries were also to produce a Capacity Development Strategy and Action Plan that lays out a holistic programme of action to build priority capacities to meet global environmental objectives. A Global Support Programme (GSP) was operational between 2005 – 2010 to provide technical backstopping to countries undertaking their NCSAs. The GSP produced a Resource Kit that set out the guidelines and methodologies for the undertaking the NCSAs. The GSP convened 14 sub-regional workshops to support countries through a sharing of lessons learned and best practices. Workshop reports can be viewed here.

UNDP supported 111 countries to undertake their NCSAs, while UNEP supported 34 countries. Each NCSA produced thematic and cross-cutting assessments of capacity development challenges, and a Final Report and Action Plan. 

Bolivia has submitted only one National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in November 2000. The Communication established the National GHG Inventory for the year 1994, it presents the main vulnerability challenges to climate change for the forestry, water and farm sectors, as well as provides mitigation options and a description of the existing projects in the various sectors.

A Second National Communication is currently under preparation with the objectives of establishing strategic relationships with local governments and institutions for a better understanding of the impacts of climate change, to generate a national GHG inventory, to generate vulnerability studies of human systems to climate change, to collaborate with the development of climate change scenarios and to offer support to the development of pilot projects in mitigation of GHG from key sources.

The National Climate Change Program (PNCC, Spanish acronym) was created in 1995 as operational branch of the formerly known Vice Ministry of Biodiversity, Forest Resources and Environment10currently Vice-Ministry of Environment, Biodiversity and Climate Change, which acts as the Ministry of Environment and Waters’s coordinating body. The Vice-Ministry plays the role of a technical advisor to the government on climate change adaptation issues and actions to comply with the UNFCCC. The PNCC initiated research activities related to climate change issues and the first investigations on the national inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the analysis of vulnerability and adaptation of forest, agriculture, livestock and water resources and the analysis of mitigation options for GHG emissions in the energy and not-energy sectors in order to consolidate the National Communications to the UNFCCC. Within the PNCC´s responsibilities also lies the development of National Climate Change Action Plans11 and related strategies as well as the educational dissemination of climate change issues to the Bolivian public.

The Bolivian Strategy on Climate Change will be based on the following four areas, designed to follow action within an economic and social development framework:

• Promoting clean development in Bolivia by introducing technological changes in the agriculture, forestry, and industrial sectors, aimed to reduce GHG emissions with a positive impact on development.
• Contributing to carbon management in forests, wetlands and other managed natural ecosystems.
• Increasing effectiveness in energy supply and use to mitigate effects of GHG emissions and risk of contingencies.
• Focus on increased and efficient observations, and understanding of environmental changes in Bolivia to develop effective and timely responses.

Bolivia has incorporated cross-cutting policies and programs into the 2006-2010 National Development Program to guarantee adequate and early response to the impacts of climate change. In 2007, the country issued its National Adaptation Plan (MNACC, Spanish acronym) which aims at reducing vulnerability to climate change and promoting planned adaptation within the framework of various sectoral programs. The Plan includes five sectoral programs: 1) water resources, 2) food security, 3) health, 4) human settlements and risks reduction and 5) ecosystems; and three transversal programs: 1) scientific research, 2) education, and 3) social aspects.

The first Climate Change Adaptation Strategy at the Municipal level, covering six municipalities of Titicaca Lake and Crucenos Valleys region, was issued in May 2007. Among the adaptation measures identified in the Strategy are the following priority areas: 1) territorial planning; 2) water security; 3) climate-proofing productive systems; 4) development of adaptation capacity, etc.

Bolivia is located in central South America, between 57° 26’ and 69° 38’ W longitude, and between 09° 38’ and 22° 53’ S latitude covering a geographical area of 1,098,581 km2.

Bolivia experiences a variety of climates determined by the tropical humid influences of the Equatorial Amazonian Current and the Southern Current cold-air masses. Additionally, latitude and altitude gradients between east and west have an influence on the climate.

Sources:

• World Bank Country Notes on Climate Change Aspects in Agriculture. Accessed on: 24 May 2010 at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/0,,contentMDK:...
• For additional information and for the complete Bolivia - Country Note on Climate Change Aspects in Agriculture refer to the World Bank Country Notes here.

The effects of climate change will significantly impact the livelihoods of rural poor communities in Bolivia.  Increasing temperatures, increasingly variable precipitation, melting glaciers and consequently altered hydrology will have significant impacts on the ecosystems upon which people rely for agriculture, water, and other vital goods and services – threatening biodiversity, increasing land degradation pressures, and threatening progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. 

In response, the CBA project in Bolivia will build community-level capacity to adapt to climate change by integrating climate change risk management practices into community management of agro-ecosystems, water, soils, and crop genetic resources.  Through these activities and through the development of strategic partnerships, CBA project activities will increase the resilience of land and biodiversity resources to the impacts of climate change.

CBA-supported community projects in Bolivia will focus on three key areas:

Food security/agriculture:  CBA-Bolivia projects in agriculture will focus on adaptation to increasing temperatures and increasingly variable rainfall.  CBA projects will focus on interventions that more effectively manage indigenous agro-biodiversity in response to climate-driven erosion and pressures on critical crop yields.

Water Resources:  CBA-Bolivia projects in water resource management will seek to manage changing hydrology stemming from of increasing glacier melt-driven flood and drought risk, as well as increasing rainfall variability and evapotranspiration.  In doing so, projects will reduce growing erosion risks and contribute towards sustaining rural livelihoods.

Natural Ecosystems:  CBA-Bolivia projects will also pilot community based approaches to managing biodiversity and maintaining vegetative cover in the face of climate-driven species migration. Projects will seek to reduce climate-driven pressures on threatened species and key ecosystems.

CBA projects will be focused in two key regions in Bolivia –near Lake Titicaca, and in the Crucenos Valleys.

Climate Change Projections for Bolivia

Climate change projections for Bolivia include increased temperatures, increasingly variable rainfall, leading to severe glacial melting, rapidly changing mountain ecosystems, and declining water availability.  Temperatures are predicted to increase steadily, increasing by 3°C or more during the 21^st century, with increases concentrated in the main dry season.  Significant glacial melting is likely to increase risks of flood and water shortage, as declining glaciers are less able to store water for steady release throughout the year.

Increasing evapotranspiration driven by temperature increases, in combination with increasing rainfall variability, is likely to decrease water availability significantly, and increase the proportion of drought years.

Climate change impacts in Bolivia will vary considerably with altitude, affecting diverse microclimates differently.  In addition, climate change trends will be superimposed over the ongoing context of inter-annual climate variability related to the El Niño Southern Oscillation.