The meeting that marked the closure of the project “Analysis of vulnerability, resilience and climate change adaptation of Uruguay’s productive sectors”, which had been in execution by SARAS though a Letter of Agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since early 2017, took place last August 2nd 2018 at the headquarters of the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP) in Montevideo.

The event was convened by Cecilia Jones, Coordinator for the National Plan of Adaptation to Climatic Variability and Change for the Farming sector (PNA-Agro), a project that is part of the Global FAO-UNDP Programme Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans.

The meeting included the presentation of the project and its results by SARAS project team which started with an introduction and contextualization delivered by Néstor Mazzeo (SARAS Executive Director). Next, Mercedes Berterretche (member of the research team) and Rafael Terra (SARAS Institute Associate) offered the explanation of the work strategy used and the results from the analysis of indicators for monitoring agro climatic vulnerability. The presentation also included comments and contributions from Micaela Trimble (SARAS Cooperation and Research Coordinator). Other participants to this meeting included representatives from the Office of Agricultural Policy and Programming (OPYPA-MGAP) and FAO.

The project developed by SARAS was framed within the development process of the PNA-Agro plan and was focused on the establishment of a matrix of indicators that would enable the analysis of vulnerability to climatic change (encompassing three dimensions: exposure, sensitivity and adaptation capacity) of the productive sectors of Uruguay (extensive agriculture, family farming, dairy, animal husbandry, horticulture, rice, forestation and fishing). During the work process, such matrix was developed based on different sources that included international and national literature review, workshops and ‘adaptation dialogue gatherings’ that included the participation of technicians and producers, interviews with experts and meetings with OPYPA.

Through this work, SARAS seeks to keep contributing to the development of tools that may foster adaptation within all productive sectors, and the agricultural sector in particular, in relation to climatic change and variability, as a way to inform the development of public policies on the subject, which is aligned with the MGAP priorities defined for Uruguay.

To learn more about the project, we are presenting the following video which includes the participation of many of the key actors involved in this gathering.