Integration for Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Development

Integrative approaches to land management, such as ecosystems-based approaches and landscape approaches, together with sustainable infrastructure and the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity, provide multiple benefits. By providing stakeholders with a means to work through competing interests over land and natural resources, while at the same time underscoring the importance of maintaining natural capital, these integrative approaches have considerable potential to contribute to international goals for development, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Integrative approaches, sustainable infrastructure, and sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity constitute important strategies for Asia Pacific countries to achieve the SDGs. Integration is required at various geographical and time scales. While the focus has been on developing adaptation strategies at national level, in an increasingly interconnected world integration of development and adaption planning at transboundary levels to address transboundary climate change risks should be understood as a regional priority.