Watershed managementfor disaster risk reduction
Thomas Hofer, Senior Forestry Officer
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
27 January 2021
“Exploring the potential of forest-based disaster risk reductions (F-DRR)”
2021 International Seminar organized by REDD-plus and Forest-DRR
Research and Development Center, FFPRI , JapanFAO Forestry

www.fao.org/forestry

The mandate of FAO
The mandate of FAO

FAO's mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve
agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural
populations and contribute to the growth of the world
economy.
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“Watershed management in action”
Background of Study
Field
Work
• Review experiences and lessons learned inproject design and implementation;• Covers 12 projects implemented since 2002;• Countries: DPR Korea, Ecuador, the Gambia,
Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Mauritania,Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkey,Zambia;• Study is structured along the watershed
Normative
project cycle;
WorkFAO Forestry

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Resilient Watershed Management Programme
Vision: resilient communities and sustainable provisionof watersheds services.
Activities: technical support for resilient watershedmanagement, knowledge management, and capacity
development.
Key ongoing project: enhancing community resilience
to climate change in mountain watersheds in thePhilippines and Peru (fund by Japan, MAFF)

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Watershed Management

Watershed:area drained bya water course
Watershed management:
any human action
aimed at ensuring
a sustainable use ofwatershed resources

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Risks and threats to watersheds• Natural hazards (floods,landslides, earthquakes)• Climate change• Pressure on naturalresources• Degradation anddesertification• Infrastructure• Market forces andglobalization
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Example Pakistan: SIDA-funded projectSIDA-funded project:“Stakeholders of degraded hillsides
adopt a collaborative watershed management
approach to natural resources management,socio-economic development, sustainable
livelihoods and poverty reduction”

Landslide stabilisation in 17 watersheds(building back better)
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Example Pakistan: landslide risk mitigation

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Example Pakistan: main steps of the project• Mapping, PRAs, institutional situation• Watershed Management Committee• Watershed management plan (low investment,rich in ideas)• Implementation of prioritised activities• Capacity building and training• Impact monitoring, lessons learned

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Example Pakistan: integrated watershed planning

Take home messages• Watershed management is a very appropriate andmodern approach to disaster risk management andmitigation;• Watershed management contributes to landscapeand livelihood resilience;• Forests play a key role in DRM as a component of abroader landscape approach;• Participatory, multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary
approaches are required at all levels;

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Tools and Resources• FAO (2017). Watershed management in action -Lessons learned
from FAO field projects-.
• FAO (2017). Advancing the forest and water nexus: A capacity
development facilitation guide.
• FAO (to be published in 2021). Resilient Watershed management
Handbook• Springgay, E. (2019). Forests as nature-based solutions for water.
Unasylva 251: Forests: nature-based solutions for water, 251(1), 3.
• Makino, Y., Hofer, T., Azdad, M., & Bari, F. (2020, November).
Resilient Watershed Management: Landscape Approach toClimate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction. In Workshop on
World Landslide Forum (pp. 499-506).
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11Many thanks for the opportunity!!

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