This document focuses on assisting policymakers and local community leaders living in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and states with coastlines in understanding the unique disaster risks they face and how to reduce these risks and build resilience. Given the interaction of human impacts on coast zones, ecosystem decline, and climate change, heavily populated island states are facing greater disaster risks everyday. With the resultant soil and beach erosion, as well as growing storm surge and flooding, the economies of these SIDS are likely to experience growing unemployment and underemployment as critical industries such as coastal tourism, fishing, and farming face these impacts. The document explicitly outlines the relationship between growing environmental degradation and disaster risk, then discusses disaster risk reduction (DRR) within the context of environmental governance, ecosystem services, and local livelihoods. Using Jamaica as a case, the Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Methodology Development Project (RiVAMP) utilizes statistical analysis, hydrodynamic modeling, and geographic information systems (GIS) to gain a clear picture of the current levels of environmental degradation and the future risks projected from this current reality. It outlines various methodologies policymakers can utilize to build resilience against these growing hazards. The research findings were not unexpected. Given accelerated sea level rise and environmental degradation, ecosystems in Negril, Jamaica are under great threat. It provides explanations for past degradation and projections for severe and irreversible shoreline erosion and retreat if policies are not implemented to increase coastal protection. The solutions given are to strengthen environmental governance, promote environmental awareness, and identify ecologically based DRR measures.
Ecosystems and Vulnerability Reduction