A project within the framework of the Adaptation to the Impacts of Rapid Glacier Retreat in the Tropical Andes Project

AndesPlus is a project within the framework of the Adaptation to the Impacts of Rapid Glacier Retreat in the Tropical Andes Project (PRAA) of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and the World Bank. The PRAA project seeks to reinforce resilience of local ecosystems and economies vis-à-vis the impacts caused by glacier retreat in the Tropical Andes through the implementation of pilot activities evidencing costs and benefits of adaptation to climate change in the basins selected in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Like the PRAA project many other climate adaptation projects are in need of basic scientific information on which to base adaptation strategies and eventually adaptation measures. Climate adaptation projects therefore call for such information but there is a large variety, and limited consensus, how such information should be produced by the scientific community.
AndesPlus steps into this gap, with the objective to develop a methodology for the development of a scientific basis, targeted to the context of high mountain ecosystems, considering existing approaches and tools. The project is of strong interdisciplinary nature and includes a scope from physical climate, glaciers, water resources, agriculture, ecosystems, natural hazards and risks and social, cultural and political aspects.

Through a number of workshops of international scientists and experts a report and guideline document was produced and at several steps revised. The document offers methodological and conceptual guidance in each of the above fields, and in the scoping and framing process of climate adaptation projects with a scientific approach (see the link below to download the document).

AndesPlus was executed by an international team of scientists, with several research institutions and universities from Switzerland. The counterparts were experts from government institutions from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

AndesPlus also included capacity building activities with the technical and scientific entities of the member countries to the Andean Community participating in the PRAA.

Christian Huggel