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The Kune-Vaini lagoon system (KVLS) is confronted to a number of challenges that are likely to be exacerbated with climate change and to hinder the capacity of the KVLS to provide ecosystem goods and services that are crucial for local communities. Therefore, the SCCF-financed project aims to increase the capacity of government and local communities living nearby the KVLS to adapt to climate change using an integrated suite of adaptation interventions, including EbA. The project has the three following components: • Component 1: Technical and institutional capacity to address climate change risks through EbA; • Component 2: Climate resilience through demonstration of best practice and concrete EbA and other adaptation interventions in the Kune-Vaini lagoon system; and • Component 3: Awareness and knowledge on effective EbA. It is implemented by UN Environment and executed by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment (MTE), formerly Ministry of Environment (MoE) prior to the changes in government in September 2017.The management structure of the project comprises a Project Steering Committee (PSC) overseeing the project, a Project Director from the executing agency (MTE), and a Project Management Unit (PMU).The project team also collaborates with the National Agency for Protected Areas (NAPA) and the Regional Agency for Protected Areas (RAPA) both as implementing partners and training beneficiaries. The project has enabled the opening of the tidal channel as well as reforestation and dune rehabilitation in the KV lagoon. These measures are aimed to help restore the degraded lagoon ecosystem to help the local population, whose livelihood directly depend on the lagoon’s ecosystem services (fisheries, bird habitat for tourism, flood and storm protection, etc.), to better withstand the impacts of climate change. The project has reforested 7ha, rehabilitated dunes on 1800m2, and the opening of a tidal inlet channel to ensure water circulation between the sea and the lagoon. Vulnerability of physical assets and natural systems reduced. The second component of the project focuses on the implementation of climate change adaptation options, including EbA interventions, in the KVLS to reduce the vulnerability of natural systems and local communities. Institutional and technical capacities and human skills strengthened to identify, prioritize, implement, monitor and evaluate adaptation strategies and measures. The first component of the project aims to produce technical guidelines for climate change adaptation actions, develop a plan to mobilize funds for the large-scale implementation of EbA and, together with Component 3, strengthen the capacity of local and national government to identify, implement and upscale adaptation in the Lezha region and in Albania as a whole. The project intends to benefit to the Kune Vain protected area and its ecosystem. Some of the protected area’s priorities are well reflected in the project focus such as the communication between wetland and sea, biodiversity and sustainable fisheries. In particular, it contributes to the following ideal management objectives of the protected area: • Improvement of environmental conditions to such levels that ensures the natural ecological equilibrium; • Restore the biological diversity and specific species status with international, national and local importance to such level that guaranty the site to be considered between most important Mediterranean wetlands and upgrades its protection category to National Park (IUCN protected area Category II); and • Improve the living conditions of the communities through sustainable use of natural resources in order to build a positive case study for other similar Mediterranean protected areas. • The project also addresses the following factors affecting the implementation of Ideal management objectives for the protected area: • Deforestation and reduction of biodiversity • Coastal erosion • Sedimentation in lagoon bodies and channels • Changes on hydrologic and physic-chemical proprieties