The CRiSTAL Forests user manual provides a guide to using the Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods focus on forests and ecosystems (CRiSTAL Forests)

While climate variability and change may not always be the most important stresses affecting a specific community, they should always be considered when designing and implementing development and conservation projects, particularly in communities characterized by climate-sensitive and natural resource-dependent livelihoods. Indeed, any activity that does not account for present and future potential climate risks may inadvertently increase a community’s exposure and vulnerability. For example, a reforestation project may foster dependence on species that may be negatively affected by climate change or reduce access to critical resources for marginalized social groups, thereby increasing local vulnerability in the longer term.

Without a tool to systematically assess the impacts of a project on some of the local determinants of exposure, vulnerability and adaptive capacity, it is difficult for project planners and managers to design activities that foster adaptation to climate variability and change. The Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods (CRiSTAL) seeks to address this gap. As a specialized version of the CRiSTAL tool, CRiSTAL Forests focuses more explicitly on the role of forests ecosystem services in both creating vulnerabilities and supporting adaptive capacity.

Read the CRiSTAL Forests user manual.