Agency’s Project ID: 3690
GEFSEC Project ID:
Country: Uruguay
Country Eligibility: Uruguay ratified the UNFCCC on July 22, 1994
Project Title: Implementing Pilot Climate Change Adaptation Measures in Coastal Areas of Uruguay
GEF Agency: UNDP
Other Executing AGENCY (IS):
Duration: 5 months
GEF Focal Area(s): Climate Change
GEF Operational Program(s):
GEF Strategic PRIORITY: SPA
Estimated Starting Date: April, 2006
Financing Plan (US$)GEF Project
PDF A / 25,000
Sub-Total GEF
Co-financing
GEF AgencyNational Contribution / 5,000
In Cash
In Kind 5.000
Others
Sub-Total Co-financing: / 5,000
Total PDF Financing: / 30,000
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT FACILITY
Request for PDF Block A for MSP
Record OF ENDORSEMENT on behalf of the Government:
Name, Position, Ministry / DateThis proposal has been prepared in accordance with GEF policies and procedures and meets the standards of the GEF Project Review Criteria for PDF Block A approval.
Yannick Glemarec
Deputy Executive Coordinator
and Officer-in-Charge
UNDP/GEF
Date: March 3, 2006 / Project Contact Person
Oliver Page
Regional Technical Advisor
Tel.: (507) 302-4548
E-mail:
1. global significance and problem statement
1. The coastline of Uruguay is approximately 680 km long. Seventy percent of the Uruguayan population resides in coastal zones, placing ever increasing development pressures on them. Some of the most valuable real estate in Uruguay lies in the coastal zone. Coastal areas play a critical role in the Uruguayan economy as 78% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is generated in connection with activities taking place in those areas. Every year, the country’s beaches attract millions of visitors from the region and overseas, mainly from Argentina.
2. Wetlands occupy 3% of Uruguay's total territory, which are significantly concentrated in coastal areas. In all of Uruguay's natural environments, wetland ecosystems are among the richest in terms of diversity and wild flora and fauna. Among the most important wetland in Uruguay, the following are important for buffering the impacts of climate change and of land based sources of marine pollution:
3. The Bañados del Este in Eastern Uruguay is a complex mosaic of habitats of global importance, including mudflats, coastal dunes, estuaries, rivers, coastal wetlands and coastal lagoons (both freshwater and brackish), inland marshes, palm swamps, grasslands, and riparian habitats. Without doubt, Bañados del Este is principal conservation area for Uruguay in terms of ecosystem size and continuousness, and is the only place where native Uruguayan habitats can still be found in a wilderness state in a large extension. This strip includes various water surfaces and surrounding tidelands of river-sea junctions incorporating the Rocha lagoon, the Castillos lagoon, the Negra lagoon and the Uruguayan part of the Merín lagoon.
4. The Santa Lucia River also housed wetlands of importance, which have the particularity of being located at the outskirts of Montevideo’s metropolitan areas and close to the coast. These wetlands are probably among the most vulnerable in Uruguay to urban sprawl, pollution and saltwater intrusion. Other important wetland is Esteros de Farrapos wetland, with an area of more than six thousand hectares located on the Rio Uruguay floodplain, which is of governmental property since 2001. The MVOTMA acquired this wetland aiming to manage it as a natural protected area, in the framework of the Protected Areas National System.
5. The high productivity of these water-dominated ecosystems supports very large populations of wildlife, especially mammals, birds, and fish, as well as large extensions of unique botanical communities dominated by grasslands, macrophytes and palms.
Bañados Del Este wetlands continue to be under serious threat because of historic unsustainable land-use practices that have deteriorated its ecological integrity, many of which continue today. Wetland loss and degradation have occurred because of the large-scale development of rice fields, and the coastal areas have been deteriorated because of tourism encroachment and urban development (Canevari et al. 2001).
6. The habitats present in Uruguay do not occur in isolation from each other but are marked by localized geographic features including rocks, hills and small ravines. This contributes to a highly-branched hydrological network and the importance of coastal wetlands is due to the high biological productivity taking place there. The diversity of habitats and the complex array of transitional areas result in large diversity of species. Low-lying coastal areas and tidal flats are also particularly vulnerable to climate change as storm surges and tides can impact inland freshwater bodies and groundwater. Similarly, coastal waters linked to the Mar del Plata estuary are also increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of increased freshwater discharge and of land based sources of marine pollution.
2. project linkage to national priorities, action plans and programmes and cp/gcf/rcf, cca and undaf situation analysis
7. As a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, Uruguay is carrying out a wide scope of activities to fulfill its commitments. A Climate Change Unit (UCC) was created in 1994, within the framework of the National Environment Directorate (DINAMA) of the Ministry of Housing, Territorial Regulation and Environment (MVOTMA), with the objective of advancing Uruguay’s efforts in this area. Since its creation, the Climate Change Unit has conducted several national exercises to fulfill Uruguay’s commitments under the UNFCCC. In addition, in 2000, the General Environmental Protection Act was passed which provides a formal framework for environmental management and protection and incorporates specific provisions for climate change. Those include the identification of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, the regulation of the release of greenhouse gas emissions, and the coordination of the responsibilities and efforts of other public and private entities related to those issues, by MVOTMA.
8. The submission of the National Communications is one of the country’s main commitments under the UNFCCC. As a result of more than 10 years of capacity building activities carried out and coordinated by the Climate Change Unit, an Initial National Communication to the UNFCCC was submitted in 1997 followed by the country’s Second National Communication in 2004. Uruguay was the first developing country in submitting its Second National Communication, prepared in accordance with the latest guidelines approved by the Parties in COP 8. Both communications well reflect the efforts of the country in exploring strategies that would allow it to deal with the effects of climate change while generating benefits to both the local and global environments. One such strategy was the comprehensive Program of General Measures for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change in Uruguay (PMEGEMA) which developed into, and was incorporated into Uruguay’s Second National Communication. The PMEGEMA was developed in coordination with all relevant stakeholders, through the establishment of inter institutional and multidisciplinary working groups. On November 2003, the implementation of the measures listed in the PMEGEMA was declared of Ministerial Interest by MVOTMA.
9. Adaptation to climate change is thus a major policy objective for Uruguay. In the preparation of its Third National Communication to the Convention, the MVOTMA is working to address the priorities identified in previous communications. Climate change adaptation in the sectors of water resources, coastal resources, and agriculture were among the sector priorities identified. Although other sectors (e.g. agriculture) are also sensitive to climate change and need to consider adaptation, these three are particularly critical in terms of both development and vulnerability to climate change. For the purpose of this submission for a Medium Size Project to the GEF, this project will concentrate on adaptation measures necessary to preserve and restore coastal wetlands, and the sustainable use of coastal resources, one of the main environmental assets of the country.
10. Through the PMEGEMA, the Uruguayan government defined concrete adaptation measures for various exposed systems. Referring to Coastal Resources, three measures were identified: a) To promote the integrated management of Coastal Areas of Uruguay, through inter-agency and inter-institutional coordination in vulnerable segments of the Coast to the impacts of climate change.; b) Establishment of a systematic monitoring system for tidal surges and beach profiles; c) Study of degraded coastal areas with a practical proposal for the restoration and the reduction of future climate risks for coastal ecosystems and infrastructure.
11. Addressing adaptation in these sectors is fully consistent with other national actions. Moreover, a significant level of synergy is evident with existing policies, plans, and programs including the Water Act passed in 1978, the Soil Conservation Act of 1982, the Forestry Promotion Law of 1987, the Environmental Impact Assessment Act of 1994, the General Environmental Protection Act of 2000, and the Protected Areas Act of 2000. With the designation of Uruguay’s “Eastern Wetlands and its Coastal Zone” as a Ramsar site and the on-going regional GEF-supported projects like PROBIDES, a significant conservation baseline has been built for the lakes and coastal lagoons of the eastern wetlands system called Bañados del Este. The project has also involved a series of partners including international NGOs such as IUCN, and local organizations.
12. Larger regional initiatives have also been undergoing on international waters with a large UNEP-GEF project called “Formulation of a Water Resources Management Framework of the Plata River Basin”. Another regional project is the “Environmental Protection of the Rio de la Plata and its Maritime Front”, a UNDP/GEF International Waters project, referred to as FREPLATA , which centers on the prevention and control of pollution and the restoration of coastal habitats, as a binational ecosystem and international waters.
13. FREPLATA identifies in its overall assessment of coastal resources in the Rio La Plata International watershed, a sharp increase, during the past decades, of tourism, fishery activities and marine traffic, as well as the growth of human settlements and industrial activities, and the building infrastructures that are being planned in the basin area, are all factors that have and will have a significant impact on the coastal zone of the Rio de la Plata In its assessment of the impacts of climate change and human induced environmental change in the Rio La Plata watershed its maritime front between Argentina and Uruguay, FREPLATA identified two cross cutting environmental impacts: 1) Land based sources of marine and freshwater pollution, and 2) Changes in the structure and productivity of coastal and marine ecosystems, due to changes in salinity, turbidity and composition of this estuarine system. The FREPLATA project has developed up to 2004 a Trans-boundary Assessment (ADT), which has led to propose a Strategic Action Program (PAE). As part of its scientific assessments of the land-based sources of marine pollutants, FREPLATA identified that the 35,000Km2 watershed of the Rio La Plata receives a sediment load of 260,000 Tons/day from the Rio Paraná and 20,000 Tons/day from the Rio Uruguay watershed. The greatest impacts of these changes affect the flora and fauna of the coastal and marine ecosystems of the lower Rio La Plata. In particular, due to sharp increases in precipitation and runoff, the maritime front-the limit between outgoing freshwater and seawater is reseeding eastwards. This change in hydrology, partly attributable to climate variability, is also affecting Large Marine Ecosystems linked to the Maritime Front of the La Plata Estuary.
14. Another important initiative at the national level is the Project ECOPLATA, with support from the Canadian research organization IDRC and UNDP, which has also documented the Uruguayan coastal ecology of the Río de la Plata. ECOPLATA is a programme aimed at supporting research and management, to sustain, preserve and use the natural resources of the coastal zone of the Rio de la Plata and its ocean front Similarly, the MVOTMA Land Use Planning Directorate has developed over past years a National Coastal Policy which was linked to phase 3 of the ECOPLATA project, and which defined zoning rules and designated critical coastal management zones.
15. Much of the information generated by these two regional projects (ECOPLATA, FREPLATA) provide an particularly solid scientific baseline upon which to build an adaptation project, focusing on the relationship between climate change and its impact on environmental change in international waters and coastal resources in Uruguay. This baseline is important in defining the Global Environmental Benefits which this project will aim for, which are directly linked to reducing the impacts of climate change in the coastal ecosystems of Uruguay, as part of the larger international water system of the Rio La Plata.
16. Uruguay has been the first Latin-American country to complete its enabling activity for the National Capacity Self-Assessment for Global Environmental Management (NCSA), which has provided an important overview of the country’s activities in fulfillment of its obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as well as a roadmap to increase national capacities. Capacity enhancement derived from the execution of this climate change adaptation project will fulfill some of the capacity needs identified in the NCSA project. In particular, among the most important needs identified are those related to inter institutional coordination, information-sharing and to raising awareness on these issues among decision-makers and stakeholders.
17. Uruguay is also among the first Latin American countries to obtain GEF funding, in the framework of the six-year UNDP/UNEP joint proposal to fund 130 climate change enabling activities in support of National Communications, to prepare its Third National Communication (TNC) to the UNFCCC. Building on the achievements of prior national communications, the TNC project proposal sets out to identify measures geared to mitigation of and adaptation to climate change applicable to those activities and sectors with great importance due to economic and environmental criteria, which were not sufficiently addressed in the previous studies developed for the submitted national communications. Since the coastal resources are among the most exposed systems to climate change in Uruguay, the TCN project proposes an evaluation of the vulnerability of Uruguay’s coastal zone to different climate change scenarios recently developed using the PRECIS model to conduct the downscaling of Global Circulation Models. It proposes the economic valuation of the coastal resources under climate change threat, while conducting the economic assessment of adaptation measures to be identified.