ProAct Network's new publication "The Role of Environmental Management and Eco-engineering in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation" was launched at the International Disaster and Risk Conference at Davos, Switzerland on 26th August 2008. In a related workshop, panellists from the Inter-American Development Bank, CIDA, the Ministry of Environment - Finland, CARE International, IUCN and UN/ISDR concluded that:

• While DRR can be seen as a "no regrets" approach to climate change adaptation, environmental management is a "no regrets" approach to DRR as it brings multiple environmental, economic and social benefits.
• We need to communicate the potential and opportunities of environmental management in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to policy makers, practitioners and stakeholders, which requires identifying the obstacles that prevent such approaches from currently reaching the poor.
• There is a clear need to develop and adapt technical guidelines and standards for more widescale application of environmental management for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Practitioners and decision-makers in conjunction with an effective knowledge management, dissemination and technical backstopping are key elements of the system.
• New solutions are often not needed: instead we need to disseminate and adapt existing technologies and promote and support best practices of environmental management in relation to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

Download eco-engineering presentations from the workshop:

Overview of the Report and Key Recommendations (Ms Nina Saalismaa, ProAct Network)

Using Eco-Engineering to Prevent against Hazards in Forests on Landslide Prone Slopes (Dr Alexia Stokes, INRA-AMAP, France).

Mitigation of the Tsunami Hazard (Prof. S.S.L. Hettiarachchi, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka)

Quantifying the Protective Capacity of Forests against Snow Avalanches (Dr Peter Bebi and Dr Perry Bartelt, SLF, Switzerland)

Ecosystem services of a floodplain with preserved hydrological regime (Ms. Katerina Krováková, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)

We welcome any feedback and further collaboration with institutions and individuals interested and committed to this subject.