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Centers Respond to Asian Tsunami
Following the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean region, the Future Harvest Centers of the CGIAR moved quickly to lend their expertise to ongoing efforts focusing on relief, assessment, and rebuilding of livelihoods.
 Centers close to the disaster areas, especially IWMI and WorldFish Center joined United Nations and local consortia in helping assess the damage. IWMI geographic information system (GIS) experts joined UN relief mapping experts, while researchers from WorldFish collaborated with a consortium of UN and regional agencies to rapidly assess the tsunami’s devastating impacts on fishing communities, fishing, and coral reefs. Immediate rehabilitation actions were also taken by IRRI which sent experts to Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka to assess problems in saline, coastal soils where rice is grown. IRRI’s ‘Rice Knowledge Bank,’ has been updated to provide essential information on growing rice in tsunami-affected areas.
The CGIAR Centers are working collectively to assess needs and develop partnerships projects. The first phase involves analyzing the situation and assessing needs to better target relief efforts. The second phase will have more comprehensive partnership projects. IWMI and WorldFish, with assistance from World Agroforestry Centre, CIFOR and ICRISAT will serve as the lead Centers in South Asia and Southeast Asia. A tsunami listserv has been set up to facilitate information-sharing, and websites of participating Centers carry information about mitigation activities.
Centers moved swiftly to work in areas where they have had long-term commitments.
- IWMI conducted a livelihoods-focused rapid needs assessment in the worst hit areas of Hambantota district, where it has been actively working for 15 years through the Ruhuna Benchmark River Basin research activities. IWMI is also planning to assess groundwater salinity in three regions on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka
- IPGRI has adopted Dodanduwa, Sri Lanka, a village that bore the brunt of the tsunami and site of their long-term research on coconuts. Working with a local NGO and the Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka, IPGRI will help by bringing lost equipment and assist womens’ groups with coconut-based livelihood activities
ICRISAT will support a long-term relief and rehabilitation effort in a cluster of 30 villages on the southeastern coast of India (Tamilnadu and Pondicherry) where nearly 8,000 lives were lost. In an area identified by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), significant damage has occurred to production of groundnut, pulses, and paddy crops as well as sweet potato, jasmine, mango, and cashew. Salinity levels have increased substantially and MSSRF has sought ICRISAT's help in strengthening village knowledge centers with capacity-building programs and generating natural resource management and crop production advice for local farmers.
A first meeting was held at CIFOR in January to plan long-term action. Sixty-four participants attended, and recommended a local “site-based” response to concentrate on two sites, namely, Sri Lanka (coordinated by IWMI) and in Aceh, Indonesia (coordinated by World Agroforestry Centre).
The second response is the development of systemwide proposals for work across the two sub-regions. One proposal, led by the Consortium on Spatial Information, will assess the impact of the tsunami on livelihoods using Centers’ combined knowledge, databases, remote sensing and GIS expertise.
Another proposal at the system-wide level involves several Centers that have developed a joint concept note, “Turning Disaster into Opportunity: New directions for coastal communities for a better and more sustainable future.” The paper urges rehabilitation efforts embrace the entire landscape—from sea to upland forests—and look at the bigger picture for development using the sustainable livelihoods and integrated natural resource management approaches.
The Centers and their partners are exploring location-specific livelihood options for the devastated people of the region. In addition to rice farming, other livelihood options include sweet potato production (e.g. using varieties that produce yields in 60 days and are known for early colonization of damaged land after the Mount Pinatubo eruption and in the rebuilding of East Timor). CIP has started rapid multiplication of advanced, salt-tolerant clones and seed collections for shipment to affected areas in Aceh and eastern Sri Lanka.
Coconuts, bananas and other trees that are the mainstays of coastal food systems have been adversely affected. The COGENT network for coconuts as well as the INIBAP network for bananas, both coordinated by IPGRI, will assess the impacts and identify appropriate strategies that can be used in rehabilitation efforts.
From a forestry perspective, CIFOR is drawing on its research into the 1990s Asian financial crisis, when almost 80 million people were living below the poverty line. Research shows that forests played a key “safety net” role in providing many people in rural areas with livelihood assistance and subsistence needs and hopes to build local research capacity by involving students from Aceh and local universities in reconstruction activities.
A recovery and improvement program for Aceh livestock by the Indonesian Center for Animal Research and Development (ICARD), Sungei Putih Goat Research Center, ILRI and CIAT will help establish improved feed resources and re-build goat, poultry and sheep production systems. Urban and peri-urban farming will be aided by drawing on the expertise of the ‘Urban Harvest’ program.
As the Indian Ocean region starts to rebuild its coastal life, the CGIAR Centers have committed to bringing their collective expertise to the massive task ahead.
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