Mauritius

National Focal Point

Ministry of Social Security, National Solidarity and Environment and Sustainable Development

National Strategic Documents and Timeframe

• NDC: 2020 – 2030
• Climate Change Action Plan

Priorities and Needs

The NDC highlights that as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), Mauritius is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and its adverse impacts on socio-economic development. It provides that, according to the latest World Risk Report (2014), Mauritius is ranked as the 14th country with the highest disaster risk and ranked 7th on the list of countries most exposed to natural hazards.

The NDC sets out that the country is highly vulnerable to the threats of climate change, including: atmospheric temperature and sea level rise, rainfall patterns, tropical cyclone intensity, storm surges, droughts and floods which impact adversely on many economic sectors, and human health.

It describes that Mauritius faces multi-faceted environmental challenges, including changes in rainfall patterns both temporally and spatially. Agricultural production may decline in the medium and longer term due to increased rainfall variability. Furthermore, the ecosystem and natural habitat of fish and other marine species are being rapidly eroded due to adverse impacts of climate change. It is said that the deterioration of natural assets, such as beaches, that are vital to the tourism industry, pose a threat to some $50 million in value from the sector by 2050.

The NDC goes on to state that the frequency of extreme climatic events is also on the rise, as well as the extent of damage to infrastructure and toll on human life. The functioning of the ecosystem is also suffering from episodes of coral bleaching and accentuated beach erosion. The low-lying areas of the country, in particular Agalega, are vulnerable to sea level rise, and Rodrigues is exposed to long periods of water scarcity. The intensification of cyclones in short periods of time has also been observed.

Current and Planned Adaptation Efforts

Mauritius’s NDC lists the following priority adaptation actions:

• Infrastructure: Protection of infrastructure will be enhanced against climate change calamities.
• Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy: Understand disaster risk, implement disaster risk strategy, strengthen management of related governance and invest in resilience.
• Coastal Zone Management: Improve awareness, enhance rehabilitation and strengthen regulatory framework for protection of beach, dunes and vegetation.
• Water Resources Management: Improve forecasting, management, protection and quality of water resources, including upgrading and building of new treatment plants and reservoirs and reducing water losses in the distribution system.
• Rainwater Harvesting: Procurement and installation of rainwater harvesting systems and improvement in policy, legal and regulatory water framework in mainland Mauritius, Rodrigues and other outer islands.
• Desalination: Small desalination projects, especially for Rodrigues island
• Integrated Pest and Disease Management: Develop an integrated strategy and policy to foster adoption of Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM) practices including the review of policy and regulatory framework to facilitate the upscaling of IPDM technology and regulate the use and disposal of pesticides.
• Efficient Irrigation Techniques Development: Investment in water infrastructure to support irrigation projects and development of a policy framework to enhance access to, and production use of, water in the agricultural sector, and promote climate smart agriculture practices
• Climate Smart Fisheries: Development and implementation of sustainable fishing management plans, strengthening of institutional capacity and adaptation of infrastructure (quay) to climate change (sea level rise).
• Improve Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity Resilience: Improvement of the management of marine and terrestrial protected areas and expansion of protected area network including rehabilitation of wetlands, sea-grass, mangrove plantation, increase in tree coverage areas and coral reef rehabilitation/farming.
• Health Sector: Mainstream climate change adaptation in health sector to respond to population increase and its additional climate-related health burden. Development implement a communication, education and awareness strategy with respect to climate change risks and impacts on human health. Improve surveillance of diseases associated with climate change and develop and implement a decentralized alert and rapid response mechanism.
• Transportation: Acquisition of hybrid and electric means of mass transportation.

Synergies with Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts

Within its priority adaptation actions, Mauritius’ NDC lists a Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy, the objective of which is to understand disaster risk, implement disaster risk strategy, strengthen management of related governance, and invest in resilience.

Requirements for Additional Planning, Financial and Technical Capacities

The NDC emphasises that the costs of adaptation measures are so exorbitant that Mauritius can only achieve its targets if financial support in terms of grant and technical support from partners is made available to enable it to implement the plans to protect life and property and mitigate any propensity of migration of its population.

Mauritius’ NDC includes a section on means of implementation which highlights the requirement of international support to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change that affect several sectors of the economy. It states that the implementation of the NDC will require about USD 4 billion for adaptation measures across all sectors up to 2030 in the form of finance, investment, technology development and transfer, and capacity-building to fully realize its intended contribution.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The Ministry of Environment Sustainable Development, and Disaster and Beach Management (Climate Change Division) has put in place a system to monitor and assess vulnerability and adaptation to climate change that allows for the monitoring of climate vulnerability and the results of adaptation actions, taking into account gender issues.