IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

SEARCH is a three year regional project working in five countries (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon), funded by the European Union, to develop and pilot a resilience framework for local action planning capacities and methodologies to increase climate change resilience through joint learning, planning and testing by stakeholders through demonstration sites. 

The SEARCH project demonstrates how local communities can successfully engage with and overcome the negative impacts of the climate change. Instead of looking for solutions to specific environmental problems, SEARCH concentrates on giving the local community and other stakeholders the skills and knowledge they need to assess the impact of climate change on a day-to-day basis. It also and foremost helps them develop a realistic vision for the future to assist them in increasing their resilience towards climate change.

SEARCH brings stakeholders from all backgrounds together into roundtable discussions in order to achieve a complete participatory approach and raise awareness from the end user up to the ministry level. The project is implemented in a context where the pressure on natural resources has grown sharply as a result of the impact of the climate change and other emerging factors such as; increase in population, per-capita demand and competing demands for agriculture, industry and others. Agriculture and water resources have traditionally been managed in a highly centralized manner, which has failed to integrate ecosystem management and land use management in light of the consequences of climate change impacts. The views of the end users – primarily women – are therefore seldom sought.

Through field projects, partners test how stakeholder participation, improved climate change resilience can improve livelihoods and maintain healthy social ecosystems.

Work is carried out in the following river basins in the region:

Jordan 

Palestine 

Lebanon 

Egypt 

Morocco