Vulnerability Assessment

Abstract

Climate change is expected to have severe impacts on the Mediterranean region. However, the extent to which socio-ecological systems are vulnerable to these impacts is defined by the level of preparedness and the capacity to respond and adapt. In this chapter an integrated vulnerability assessment is carried out for the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean (IBRM). The assessment takes into account the exposure of the IBRM to the hazards of climate and global change, the impacts of these changes, and the adaptive capacity of political systems to cope with the potential negative consequences for human security. The IBRM presents a particularly interesting case study for this assessment. On the one hand, the current and future effects of climate change are rather homogenous throughout the Reserve which is ostensibly protected under a single framework. On the other hand, the Reserve extends across two separate nation states (Morocco and Spain) with very different institutional and cultural contexts. In this way, both the manner in which climate change affects socio-ecological systems and the capacity of policy frameworks to address the impacts vary considerably. The assessment finds that there are considerable differences in the type and extent of vulnerability in each national jurisdiction of the IBRM.