Scaling up adaptation pilots and ecosystem-based approaches to restore the Tagabe Riverbank in Vanuatu.

In Vanuatu, PACRES has been working for two years with SPREP, SPC and USP and all relevant Ministries in the development and implementation of a vegetation restoration plan along the banks and mouth of the Tagabe River.

The River is upstream of Port Vila and is a major source of drinking water for the capital of Vanuatu. The communities along the lower reaches of the river are exposed to extreme climatic events, such as cyclones and heavy rainfall events, as well as floods. The revegetation of the riparian zones along the Tagabe river aims to stabilise the riverbank, providing shade to the river and safeguarding important aquatic habitats and reduce erosion, hence also enhancing the community resilience to flood plain events.

PACRES’ Tagebe River Bank Restoration Initiative builds  and expands on many of the activities of the existing Pacific Ecosystems-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) and International Waters Ridge to Reef (R2R) projects.

On the basis of the previous initiatives, PACRES will also carry out the following activities:

• nursery expansion, planting and reforestation in the Tagabe watershed and selected urban and peri-urban areas of Port Vila and protection of coastal vegetation at the Tagabe River mouth and Fatumaru Bay;
• development of the Tagabe River Integrated Catchment Management Plan (ICMP) and an Urban Greening Master Plan for Port Vila.

The project is also planning for seedling collection and propagation once the nursery expansion is completed and after that engagement of communities and other groups in planting out the seedlings.

In this respect, PACRES (in collaboration with the R2R Project, Vanuatu’s Department of Climate Change (DoCC) and the Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation) organized awareness-raising sessions between August and October 2020 with local communities. A total of 106 people, 69 females and 37 males, from 10 communities participated in the awareness sessions. The communities were from Tagabe, Efate, Blacksands, Ohlen and Ifira regions.

Topics included water resource management, ecosystem services, sustainability, enhanced livelihoods through good ecosystem management practices, river, riparian zone and coastal management and waste management.