Increasing Communities' Resilience to Climate Change Enhancing resilience of vulnerable communities in Chitral to impacts of climate change through adaptive and climate smart measures.

Kailash Valley, Lower Chitral serves as a unique and critical mountainous biodiversity hotspot, with high fragility and environmental risks. Due to its complex geography (e.g. unstable slopes, rock fall, landslides), it is also exposed to multiple hazards: including active seismic fault lines; receding glacial mass and its feeding rivers that result in flood inundations, land erosions, and GLOF events; as well as snow avalanches (National DRR Policy, 2013). Due to climate change, the frequency and severity of these events has increased considerably (National Climate Change Policy, 2012) which strongly suggests that rather than responding, rehabilitating, and rebuilding in post-disaster situations, a pre-emptive approach of investing in effective mechanisms for natural resource management and disaster preparedness is more important than ever before. In addition, investments are needed in forward looking strategies that can enable low-carbon sectors and create climate-responsive opportunities. The proposed project has identified priority interventions (detailed in the Project Agreement), responsive to the needs and vulnerabilities of the target area.

Enhancing resilience of vulnerable communities in Chitral to impacts of climate change through adaptive and climate smart measures, which includes:
1. Increase capacities, knowledge and preparedness of vulnerable communities to climate induced hazards
2. Establishment of a comprehensive habitat plan for Kailash Valley
3. Safeguarding communities against the risk of disasters through the establishment of Early Warning Systems
4. Access to clean energy enhanced through asset rehabilitation
5. Promote efficient use of clean energy through community awareness
6. Promoting climate-forward natural resource management through nature-based solutions