Project

Reduced climate change-related flood risks in the Vrbas River Basin, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lead country

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Participating countries

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Project status

Closure

Implementing period

From March 24, 2015 to December 31, 2020

SDGs addressed by this project

SDG targets

  1. 15.2 Promote sustainable forest management, restoration, afforestation
  2. 13.1 Strengthen resilience, adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards
  3. 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.

Project ID: 5241

*The boundaries shown and the designations used on the above map and included in lists, tables and documents on this website do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations or UNDP | References to Kosovo* shall be understood to be in the context of UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).

Technical team

  • Climate Change Adaptation Programme

Technical area(s)

  • Climate information and early warning systems (CI & EWS)
  • Ecosystem-based adaptation

Landscape(s)

  • Human altered areas
  • FreshWaters

Sub-landscape(s)

  • Rural areas
  • Rivers and river basins

Transformed sector(s)

  • Agriculture
  • Forestry and other land use

UNDP role(s)

  • Capacity development / Technical assistance
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Risk analysis

Strategy

  • Capacity building
  • Law regulation
  • Technology innovation

Sub-strategy

  • Technical capacity building
  • Institutional capacity building
  • Community capacity building
  • Laws/ Policy/ Plan formulation
  • Infrastructure building

Social inclusion

N/A

Gender equality

  • Gender-responsive policies

Gender result effectiveness scale

  • Gender responsive

Pathway(s)

  • People pathway
  • Systems pathway

Risk reduction target(s)

  • Improve resilience

SDG target(s)

  • 15.2 Promote sustainable forest management, restoration, afforestation
  • 13.1 Strengthen resilience, adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards
  • 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.

Conventions and protocols

N/A

Private sector(s)

N/A

Hot topic

  • Food and agricultural commodities strategy

About this project

Description

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is a middle income country with an estimated 3.8 million inhabitants, which is still recovering from the 1992-1995 war which had a devastating impact on its human, social and economic resources, leading to enormous challenges of the post-war reconstruction and economic and social recovery. This challenge has been further compounded by the transition towards market economy requiring structural reforms and improved governance. The slow rate of the post-war economic recovery of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been compounded by the negative impacts of climate change on key sectors such as agriculture, energy (hydropower), the environment and, in particular, the frequency and magnitude of flood disasters, which have tripled in frequency in the last decade.. In May 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced its worst flooding in 150 years which resulted in 23 deaths and $2.7 Billion USD worth of damages which is 15% of GDP, and is expected to result in a 1.1 percent contraction in the economy this year, compared to the growth of 2.2 percent that had been predicted before the flood.BiH is significantly exposed to the threats of climate change, but has very limited capacity to address and adapt to its negative impacts, in particular the frequency and magnitude of floods from its major rivers. The Vrbas River basin is characterized by a large rural population comprised of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in BiH, including war returnees and displaced people, with high exposure to flooding and its devastating impacts. The SCCF funds will be used to enable the communities of the Vrbas basin to adapt to flood risk through the transfer of adaptation technologies for climate resilient flood management, upgrade and rehabilitation of the hydrometric monitoring network, development of a flood forecasting system and early warning system, development of emergency response plans, and provision of training in flood-specific civil protection. Importantly, the project will provide targeted training on climate-induced FRM to over 100 practitioners and decisions makers, and will develop an institutional capacity development plan for the long-term development of capability and capacity in Flood Risk Management (FRM). The project will work closely with affected communities to introduce climate resilient community-based non-structural measures and provide training to local communities in climate resilient FRM. This will include the introduction of agro-forestry, community-based early warning systems, reforestation and introduction of financial instruments such as index-based flood insurance and credit deference schemes as a means of compensating for flood damages for agriculture. The enabling environment will be enhanced by embedding climate change into key sector policies, strategies and plans to enable climate resilient flood risk management within sectors that impact flood risk significantly, including land use and spatial planning, forestry, agriculture and energy sectors. Specifically, the project will introduce floodplain management regulations that will enhance zoning of development and activities away from high risk areas. Hence, the project will help the government of BiH and the population of the targeted region to develop adaptive capacity and embark on climate resilient economic activities.

Objectives

To transfer technologies for climate resilient flood management in order to increase resilience of highly exposed rural poor, returnee and displaced persons communities in Vrbas River Basin.

USD $5,150,000

Grant amount

USD $77,260,000

Leveraged amount (co-financing)

1

Source(s) of fund

Sources of fund

 

  • Special Climate Change Fund ($5,150,000)

Implementing partner(s)

  • Government of Bosnia & Herzegovina

Project metrics

Related resources

Geospatial information

Discover relevant spatial data related to this project/country/region, powered by UN BiodiversityLab

Project reports and documentation