National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) of the Ministry of Land, Water and Environment.

This National Adaptation Programme of Action is a nationwide sectoral document developed by the Government of Eritrea to present the highest priority actions needed by the country to adapt to climate change. The document follows a twin-track approach, considering that adaptation to climate change possess great potential of affecting other topics as poverty reduction, improving food security, and disaster preparedness and prevention. The NAPA identifies the most vulnerable groups to climate risks together with the area most directly affected. As for the former, they are (i) subsistence farmers; (ii) rural dwellers; (iii) pastoralists; (iv) urban poor; (v) fishermen; and (vi) island residents. The concerned areas are the following (i) agriculture; (ii) livestock; (iii) forestry; (iv) water resources; (v) marine and coastal zones; and (vi) public health. The adaptation projects are listed by urgency in each sector and, in the list of priorities, the most important among them are selected.
To make agriculture and forestry more productive and sustainable, the NAPA's adaptation measures are (i) improve soil fertility and moisture retention using conservation, fertilization, and alternative cropping techniques; (ii) increase water supply through irrigation, water diversion structures, ponds, wells, and the optimization of farming practices; (iii) control pests and plant diseases through regular weeding, crop rotation, and planting of appropriate crops; (iv) time crop cultivation in direct response to changing patterns of rainfall; (v) breed drought- and disease-resistant high-yield crops to maintain and/or improve crop production levels; (vi) expand irrigated agriculture, especially spate-irrigated agriculture for crop/livestock production. As for the forest sector, main interventions concern (i) encourage afforestation of degraded landscape and watersheds; (ii) Promote agro-forestry practices as a way of diversifying land production systems; (iii) plant a mix of drought resistant indigenous and fast growing exotic species through community forestry initiatives; (iv) encourage natural regeneration through enclosures augmented with enrichment planting in biodiversity protected areas; (v) promote wood energy substitutes and wood consumption efficiency; and (vi) encourage alternatives for wood in traditional house construction.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural systems, in the proposed projects is provided for (i) providing initial good sheep breeding stock for women headed households and the poor in general; and (ii) training communities to manage their resources.
Resilience of livelihoods to disasters will be increased through (i) conducting impact and adaptation research on water resources; (ii) promoting research to bridge existing knowledge gaps regarding sea level rise; (iii) introducing marine and coastal infrastructure protected areas; (iv) promoting traditional adaptation measures such as natural bench nourishment; (v) developing accessible community awareness programs on climate change and adaptation options; (vi) establishing drought early warning systems; and (vii) improve emergency preparedness.
As for the Governance, the document envisages the establishment of community based institution, provided with the required infrastructure, to help the Department of Environment (DOE) in the Ministry of Land, Water and Environment to implement the NAPA.