Coastal Resilience Project in Tonga

Project details

In the face of sea level rise, Tonga’s largest and most populated island of Tongatapu (home to around 74% of the population, or around 74,320 people) faces significant frequent flooding risks.

There is already clear evidence of the impacts of local sea level rise on the island, and the permanent losses under a 0.5m SLR scenario are expected to be 6%, and under a 1.0m SLR scenario to be 25%.

By the 2090s, sea level rise is estimated at around 59.5 cm increase using historical records only, or within the range of 40 cm–87 cm under RCP8.5. By 2150 seal level rise in Tonga is likely to have risen by 1.37 meters and up to 2m (under SSP3-7.0), and by up to 1m already by 2100.

With most of Tongatapu’s most populated areas of the north and northeast coasts at only 1m above sea level, many settlements face being inundated in the absence of adequate adaptation strategies. At the same time, geographic isolation and economic vulnerabilities, including dependence on remittance and foreign aid, increase the challenges faced by communities and decision-makers and compound climate change risks.

With finance from the Green Climate Fund, this project seeks to address coastal inundation in critical areas through immediate coastal protection measures in the northeastern parts of Tongatapu, while fostering long term adaptation measures through the provision of critical climate risk information and planning tools supported through key training, knowledge sharing and capacity.

The project proposes a transformative adaptation approach through the establishment and support for multi-stakeholder decision making on critical adaptation needs and land use planning.

The overall objective is to support the transformative adaptation agenda setting through a participatory process; supporting development and spatial planning (community development plans, district plans and island strategic plans) to consider climate risks and promote appropriate and transformative adaptation options. These are to be achieved through three interrelated key outputs.

News

Tonga Coastal Resilience Project launched in Nuku’alofa

Green Climate Fund approves $22.6 million for Tonga Coastal Resilience Project

Key results & output

Output 1: Strengthened knowledge, capacity and engagement for incorporating climate risks into long-term adaptation planning  supported through a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue platform

Activity 1.1. Establish a national multi-stakeholder engagement platform for dialogue on co-creating long-term climate change adaptation strategies and solutions including voluntary retreat.

Activity 1.2 Develop village and district level participatory climate risk informed plans

Activity 1.3 Build the capacity of local government, village committees and NGOs to integrate climate risks and adaptation needs into community level planning, and inform future Community Development Plans (CDP)

Output 2: Strengthened national and local capacities for effective monitoring and assessment of climate risks

Activity 2.1 Strengthened mechanism for collecting and analysing data and information for better-informed climate risk monitoring and coastal adaptation planning

Activity 2.2 Improve the knowledge base of multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholders on adaptation planning strategies for long-term resilient planning and transformative adaptation  for Tonga based on climate risks and projections

Output 3 Reduced vulnerabilities of coastal communities in Hahake to climate hazards through coastal protection measures

Activity 3.1. Coastal protection measures built along 4.3km of coastline in Hahake

Activity 3.2 Sharing of lessons learned and best practices in climate resilient coastal protection measures for scale-up at the national and regional level

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