WWF-Malaysia Semporna PCA Project Report
with Universiti Malaysia Sabah
Climate change is known to be a change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over long periods of time. Both natural and human factors change the Earth’s climate. Climate change is impacting both terrestrial and marine aspects, resulting changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Climate change is starting to have bigger impacts including increased ocean acidification, rising sea levels, intense weather events which in turn stresses marine ecosystems such as coastal beaches, coral reefs and seagrass beds. In addition, rising sea levels threaten low-lying islands and coastal areas and destroy critical nursery grounds for local reef fisheries. The increasing climate variability and extreme weather events lead to flooding of coastal and island villages and infrastructure, damages agricultural lands and erodes valuable coastlines. Coastal communities in the Coral Triangle region are already experiencing those impacts. The Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) is a multilateral partnership composed of six countries. To address climate change, one of the CTI targets – specifically, Goal 4 Climate Change Adaptation Achieved is Region-Wide Early Action Plan (REAP) for Climate Change Adaption (CCA) for the nearshore marine and coastal environment and small islands ecosystems developed and implemented. As a response, led by the Universiti Malaysia Sabah through the Borneo Marine Research Institute and WWF-Malaysia, two tools i.e. the Local Early Action Planning (LEAP Guide) and the Coastal Integrity Vulnerability Assessment Tool (CIVAT) were used to assess the vulnerability of Semporna Priority Conservation Area (PCA), Sabah to climate change.
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Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of Semporna Priority Conservation Area (PCA)
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