Who Developed CRiSTAL

CRiSTAL emerged from the Livelihoods and Climate Change project, an initiative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). The Livelihoods and Climate Change project examined how sustainable livelihood or ecosystem management and restoration projects reduced the vulnerability of communities to climate stress. In its second phase, the project aimed to develop a mechanism to help planners and managers of these types of projects take climate change into consideration.

Since its launch in 2007, CRiSTAL has been updated to incorporate its users’ needs and priorities as well as the latest thinking in the field of climate change adaptation. The current and completely revised version of CRiSTAL was developed between 2010 and 2012 based on extensive user experience and feedback.

CRiSTAL development and improvement has been funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA), and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).