1. 1 Natural Disasters Indian Ocean Tsunami 26 December 2004 IUCN Released on 4 February 2005 Practical Decision-Makers Guide to Help Rehabilitation of Natural Environments and Livelihoods following the Tsunami The idea is to help policy makers and project managers design and manage post-tsunami reconstruction, taking into account ecosystem rehabilitation that restores the livelihoods of survivors.

2. 2 Four areas of UNEP of rehabilitation work caused by the Tsunami Operating a clearing house of information linking field workers, international experts, policy makers, resource allocation managers, and disaster recovery experts Providing practical guides in key areas for policy makers and field workers Enhancing technical capacity in affected countries Globally coordinating assessments and long-term monitoring from corporate and NGO sectors, working in conjunction with the UN agencies.

3. 3 Bill Jackson, Director of the IUCN Global Programme statements: “Houses, schools, hospitals and hotels have all been damaged, along with fishing grounds, forests, beaches and other natural environments..” “All of these support the livelihoods of people in the affected areas, so the buildings and the ecosystems need to be restored at the same time for people to regain their daily income and standard of living”.

4. 4 The Guide is giving advice on various aspects: indicates why ecosystems need to be restored alongside infrastructure rebuilding, how to plan the recovery process, involving stakeholders, and establishing priorities. How to arrange reforestation, protect against invasive species, How to deal with different coastal ecosystem types, different livelihood types, How to arrange post-restoration monitoring. Gives necessary reference to experts IUCN is producing two more practical restoration Guides for decision-makers: on sustainable tourism and on sustainable fisheries, affected by the tsunami. www.iucn.org/tsunami/docs/tsunami-guidance-info.pdf

5. 5 The Decision Makers Guide is available from IUCN’s Tsunami website+ www.iucn.org/tsunami/.www.iucn.org/tsunami/ For downloading the Guide see also: www.iucn.org/tsunami/docs/tsunami-guidance-info.pdf

6. 6 Material presented below is taken from IUCN document Recovery from the Indian Ocean Tsunami - Guidance for Ecosystem Rehabilitation incorporating livelihoods concerns „The 26 December 2004 tsunami caused the deaths of large numbers of people and was responsible for damage to livelihoods and ecosystems across large areas of coastal regions in south and south-east Asia and eastern Africa. The event affected coastal ecosystems and, as a result, will severely affect both immediately and in the long-term, the livelihoods of people living in these areas. A great deal of evidence (from literature on previous natural disasters) demonstrates that the poor are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as severe storms, floods, landslides, fires and earthquakes because they often live in unsafe locations.”

7. 7 „It is also important to remember that the poor have less reserves to enable any quick recovery and that some legal and institutional arrangements with respect to property rights may even act as serious constraints to regaining some measure of livelihood security. The initial response of the local and international communities in the aftermath has been to deal with urgent humanitarian concerns - ensuring adequate shelter, food, water supplies, health and security of the survivors. The next stage will be to re-establish the communities and help them to rebuild and develop sustainable livelihoods. Many of these communities relied heavily on natural resources (marine and terrestrial). The sustainability of livelihoods in such cases can be enhanced by the rehabilitation of these resources and ecosystems. Attention to restoring the ecosystems that provide the life support systems for these people will benefit both communities and biodiversity for the future”.

8. 8 Invasive species and ecosystem rehabilitation Tsunami event created a situation giving a possibility for invasions of alien species because ecosystem boundaries collapsed, seawater and freshwater mix and areas become “degraded”. Example 1: water hyacinth which formerly was kept isolated in hsabitwts near coasts by seawater now can easily be swept back into previously uninfested freshwaters or slightly saline areas and remain alive to infest new areas. Rehabilitation of such freshwater ecosystems is needed to eliminate such invasive species and a proper monitoring should be organised Example 2: Submerged (wild and genetically modified) finfish, crustaceans (shrimps, crabs) or molluscs (oysters, scallops) can move to new habitats via the sea during tsunami events often from caged cultures from estuaries or the open sea Example 3: alien species in ponds (cichlid fish, tilapias) could be washed inland and then out to sea again releasing potentially invasive species (and their diseases) distant from their origin.

9. 9 IUCN gave early observations of tsunami effects on wetlands and water resources for Sri Lanca, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Somalia Example: Sri Lanca - in the Southern part the coastal rice fields and adjoining salty marshes - partially covered with marine silt containing sulphurous substances, resulting in the destruction of vegetation in these wetlands. Effects on healthy mangroves differ in the region, they seem to have been less affected than disturbed or degraded mangrove areas. They even reduced the impacts of the tsunami and protected their lives or property. Some coastal lagoons and estuaries were filled with marine sludge and silt. Mass mortality of fish near-shore, lagoon and estuarial was observed. Thus the basis for the fishermen is reduced