In 2012, the Government of Tanzania secured funding from the Adaptation Fund and the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Country Fund to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities in coastal areas. The country is facing the impacts of climate change on the coasts through rain-induced flooding and sea-level rise.

A major approach of the projects was to build the resilience of coastal communities by restoring and building concrete infrastructure, such as seawalls and urban drainage systems, which are expected to withstand climate change and protect communities and assets. To complement the grey infrastructure, the projects restored mangrove and coral habitats, both of which act as natural barriers and buffers against wave surges. The use of nature-based solutions for adapting to climate change is known as ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA).

Both projects have reduced climate vulnerability in critical coastal areas, assisted the country to implement its National Action Programme for Adaptation (NAPA), restored key ecosystems, and are estimated to have directly benefitted a total of at least 58,000 people, in addition to the economic benefits to the local economies in the coastal areas covered in the project.

In all components of the project, key lessons were learned for best practices for monitoring and evaluation, sustainability and upscaling, EbA implementation and project design.