ALBATROSS · Advancing knowldge for Long-term Benefits and climate Adaptation ThRough hOlistic climate Services and nature-based Solutions

Increasing vulnerability due to climate change requires cross-sectoral management of the territories with bottom-up approaches based on active community participation. Climate change intensifies territorial risk and impacts severely on human migration and displacement, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Avoiding maladaptation associated to internal migration as well as to other adaptation actions which do not adopt a nexus approach (e.g. water-food-energy nexus) requires effective planning and management of migration hot spots. At the same time, it calls for more integrated strategies which simultaneously support sustainable development growth pathways and climate resilience development in the African context. ALBATROSS aims at addressing these challenges by delivering novel, innovative and decision making-relevant tools and knowledge which will support the adoption of feasible, effective, and sustainable need-based adaptation strategies into AF policies and programs. It will do that by co-creating climate services and tools which will enable the weighting of compound and cascading impacts (benefits and threats) on ecosystem health, food security, socio-economic vulnerability while addressing specific natural hazards (e.g., drought or flood) or sectoral climate adaptation needs (e.g., agriculture) through nature-based solutions (NBS) and other climate adaptation measures. The methodological approach of ALBATROSS will be tested ad validated in different Sub-Saharan countries, leading to the co-creation and co-evaluation with key stakeholders of need-based adaptions options and plans. By combining participatory approaches with fundamental research grounded on the latest generation of observational data and modelling techniques, ALBATROSS will provide robust and science-based evidence on the degree at which NBS may perform as multifunctional adaptation strategy for counteracting forced migration, biodiversity loss and hydrometeorological risk in Sub-Saharan Africa.