CRISTAL - Climate Change Adaptation Tool

CRiSTAL is a project-planning tool that helps users design activities that support climate adaptation (i.e., adaptation to climate variability and change) at the community level. CRiSTAL stands for “Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods.”

• Community-based – CRiSTAL focuses on projects at the local community level.

• Risk Screening – CRiSTAL helps users to identify and prioritize climate risks that their projects might address.

• Adaptation and Livelihoods – CRiSTAL helps users to identify livelihood resources most important to climate adaptation (i.e., adaptation to climate variability and change) and uses these as a basis for designing adaptation strategies.

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 a development project, particularly in communities characterized by climate-sensitive and/or natural resource-dependent livelihoods.

New versions of the CRiSTAL tool and the User's Manual are now available in English, Spanish and French.