The
Climate
Forecast Applications (CFA) for
Disaster Mitigation Program,
supported by USAID’s Office of
Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA),
aims to develop locally-appropriate
climate information tools and
capacity for
Indonesia
and the Philippines in order to
mitigate the impacts of
hydro-meteorological hazards. The
program employs a two-tiered
approach: 1) carrying out targeted
demonstration projects to explore
and refine methods, and 2)
identifying and stimulating national
capacities to scale up the
application of methods so that they
can be applied elsewhere. The Asian
Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)
has been implementing the program
since 2003 with participation of the
countries’ hydro-meteorological
services, agriculture and water
resource departments, local
governments, universities,
community-based organizations, local
water resource managers and
farmers.
In May 2007, the CFA
Program was expanded to include
Timor-Leste. The CFA project in
Timor-Leste aims to establish an
end-to-end institutional system for
managing climate risks in
agriculture through:
-
The development
of an institutional mechanism
for the delivery,
interpretation, translation,
communication and application of
locally-specific climate
forecast information
-
Capacity building
of intermediary institutions and
end users, through training and
demonstration, in 1) the
assessment of potential
impacts based on season-ahead
forecast information, 2)
preparation of response options,
3) communication of
climate-related risks to farmers
and other end users, and 4)
application of seasonal climate
forecast information for
managing climate-related risks
-
Demonstration of
the application of
locally-specific climate
forecast information in select
sites to mitigate the impacts of
hydro-meteorological hazards at
the household level.
Opportunities for
Climate Forecast Applications
Timor-Leste has six
agro-climatic zones: the northern
lowlands, northern slopes, northern
highlands, southern lowlands,
southern slopes and southern
highlands. The northern areas, with
normal annual rainfall below 1,000
mm, are prone to drought. The 30%
drop in production in 2007 is
attributed to drought. Recent
drought years are 1997-98,
2002-2003, 2004-2005 and 2006-2007.
Flashfloods also occur, caused by
heavy rains falling on steep
slopes. Suai was most affected in
2004.
In close
collaboration with key institutions
in East Timor, we are currently
exploring different opportunities
for climate forecast applications,
including:
Key partners
We
have been engaging the following
institutions to become involved in
program implementation.
-
CARE International in
Timor-Leste
-
Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations
-
National Directorate for
Meteorology and Geophysics
-
National Directorate of Water
Resources Management
-
National Directorate for
Disaster Management
-
Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries
-
World Food Programme
