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Drought and Extreme Tides in RMI and FSM. Impacts-Palau. Water Resources/Droughts – Palau experienced 9 month drought during ’97/’98 El Ni ñ o Taro patches dried up/crop failure (Taro loss est. at $0.74 million) Fires become major hazard
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Impacts-Palau • Water Resources/Droughts – Palau experienced 9 month drought during ’97/’98 El Niño • Taro patches dried up/crop failure (Taro loss est. at $0.74 million) • Fires become major hazard (20% of Palau’s forest, savannah, and agricultural lands destroyed)
ENSO Impacts • Water rationing in Majuro—seven hours of water every 15 days in February 1998 • Crop losses in FSM, RMI, CNMI • Job losses in Fishing in FSM • Wildfires in FSM, Guam, Hawaii • Environmental Impacts—streams drying up, wild fires, coral bleaching
PEAC Lessons Learned • Number of success stories: • Water resources with direct benefits to communities and secondary benefits to industry (e.g., tuna canneries in American Samoa) • Power and utilities • Emergency management • Early & continuous collaboration/partnership with users key • Critical role of education, outreach & dialogue: • Raising awareness and understanding • Identifying impacts and exploring solutions • Building trust and credibility Communication, communication, communication
PEAC Lessons Learned • Users interested in climate information on a variety of timescales; interactions and feedbacks important • Encountered a number of scientific, technical and institutional constraints, e.g.,: • Communications infrastructure • Forecast skill varies with season, place and parameter • Political and institutional boundaries – users and providers • Limited understanding of consequences, vulnerability and options for risk management • Technical terminology and language considerations • “Getting the message right”
PEAC Lessons Learned • Importance of setting projections of future conditions in context: • Problem to be addressed • Historical events, patterns and trends • Traditional knowledge and practices • Nature & consequences of any event depend on where you sit • Building trust & credibility a long-term endeavor: • Eyeball-to-eyeball contact • Maintaining awareness between events • Accommodating relative successes & failures (e.g., 2001-2002 forecast)
General Guidelines for the Future • Recognize climate impacts are set in a multi-stress context: • Start with the problem; understand decision-making context • Additional users may require more integrated products • Embed climate information programs in context of broader development, poverty reduction environmental goals • Create and sustain a flexible/adaptable PEAC
Key Recommendations • Strengthen collaboration with users: • Maintain ties to core users • Explore new sectors/user communities (health, coastal/marine resources, agriculture, forestry, land-use planning, economic development, tourism) • Review issues, problem definition and info. needs and evaluate products • Enhance mechanisms for feedback
Key Recommendations • Strengthen and expand critical partnerships: • Users • National meteorological and hydrological services • WMO RA-V Regional Climate Center and other regional partners (e.g., SPREP, SOPAC, PI-GCOS) • Local-level expertise • Mission agencies • Local boundary organizations and information brokers (intermediaries) – including educators, media, … • Expand (formal & informal) education opportunities
Key Recommendations • Strengthen/enhance PEAC product line: • Mechanisms for regular feedback and revision • Add verification and monthly updates of conditions • Update rainfall atlas; national & local climatologies • Partnerships for locally-tailored products • Basic information on climate & response options, including economic analyses (impacts & adaptation) • Address data and communications issues • Explore new technology (e.g., data visualization tools)