Monday, April 27, 2015 Lilly 2-425 3:30 pm (Refreshments and pre-visiting at 3:15 p.m.) Climate change and government planning and response in El Salvador Herman Rosa Chávez [cid:image002.jpg@01D07DEC.A13C6CB0]Climate variability and extreme events have already established a clear pattern in El Salvador, increasing the vulnerability of both urban and rural populations and the key ecosystems that underlie not only their food producing capacity, but also exacerbating the degradation of large areas of agricultural land that have already suffered through erosion and nutrient depletion of soils due to widespread poor management practices. In a single recent event, the Tropical Depression 12E of October, 2011 alone, dumped historic level rains in the shortest time period ever, affecting the principal food and agricultural producing regions of the country. The focus will be to increase adaptive capacity of government institutions and the vulnerable population by increasing their ability to proactively adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes) in order to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences; in other words, to increase the human, social and institutional resilience. Several examples of climate related issues will be discussed. Additionally, there will also be a discussion of steps the government has made to address these issues. Herman Rosa Chávez has degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and in Economics. In his long career, he has served as Director of a University Engineering School, Director of a non-profit think-tank on environment and development issues, and lastly as Minister of the Environment of the Government of El Salvador during the previous administration (June 2009 - May 2014). During his tenure as minister, he reframed environmental policy and spearheaded a major transformation of the Ministry of the Environment, so that it now plays a much more influential role in policy formation and is closer to the concerns of ordinary citizens and local governments. Under his leadership, climate change finally came to be considered a critical development issue for El Salvador. He has written two books and many articles that address development issues and institutional, economic and environmental change, with a focus on El Salvador and Central America.