Regional cooperation is needed to cope with climate change in Southeast
Asia, speakers said at a symposium held in the Mekong Delta city of
Can Tho on June 4.
Eighty local and foreign experts in
global-warming adaptation are in Can Tho for a regional symposium that
involves government partners, non-government organisations (NGOs), donor
agencies and corporate partners.
Experts at the three-day event
are discussing innovative climate-change mitigation models that have
been successfully implemented in Southeast Asia .
The goals of
the symposium include creating a dialogue between partners in the ASEAN
community and designing effective community-based climate-change
adaptation models.
Two to three possible adaptation measures will
be taken back to each partner office to share with the local community
in Can Tho.
The community partners will then help design the preferred adaptation models.
Based
upon the local context in Laos and Vietnam , the symposium will
place a specific focus on climate-change mitigation in agriculture and
natural-resource management at the community level.
A low-lying,
densely populated area, the Mekong Delta is the heart of rice production
in Vietnam and is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to
climate change.
“Our side of the project will be based in Can
Tho, where 84 percent of its area is used for agriculture, with more
than 90 percent of it for rice production,” said Nguyen Minh The, Deputy
Director of Can Tho’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
“The
average alleviation of the province lies between 0.6 and 0.8 metres
above sea level and it is particularly susceptible to river and seawater
intrusion,” he added.
Experts predicted that a possible 30cm rise in sea levels could destroy the city’s rice crops, he added.
Other
climate-change related issues are floods, landslides, upstream climate
and land-use changes exacerbate the threat, resulting in saline
intrusion and water shortages.
If the flood tides continue to
rise at the current pace, by 2030 they could reach a height of 2.5-3
metres. At that time, the entire city could be under water.
The unpredictability of weather is already making farming activities difficult, and, in many cases, has reduced production.
According
to The, efforts are needed to implement climate-change adaptation and
mitigation initiatives, especially at the community-based level, so that
poor farmer households and the rest of the community can become more
resilient and adaptive.
Christy Owen, Deputy Chief of the Mekong
Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change project, said that food
security, health and the livelihoods of many of the Lower Mekong’s 60
million residents were dependent on the Mekong River ‘s natural
system and services, particularly for crop irrigation and fisheries.
Also
speaking at the symposium, Nguyen Huong Thuy Phan, programme
coordinator for the Climate-Change Adaptation Initiatives of the Mekong
River Commission Secretariat, attributed the region’s challenges to high
uncertainty about future climate projections, particularly in relation
to extreme events.
Ian Wood, team leader for climate-change
adaptation for the non-profit organisation Winrock International, based
in the US , said that climate change was indeed a reality, and that
temperatures were increasing, sea levels rising, and rainfall becoming
more variable.
As a result, Southeast Asia would continue to
suffer from floods, droughts, high temperatures and the impact of
salinity, he added.
The symposium in Can Tho is one component of
the Southeast Asia : Regional Environmental Adaptation to Climate
Change Training and Implementation Project that also kicked off on June
4.
The goal of the project is to develop specialised training in
innovative climate-change adaptation techniques that further sustainable
agriculture and natural-resource management.
The project also
seeks to equip rural communities with the tools to plan for the future
in the face of escalating climate-change effects.
Under the
project, two eight-month pilot projects in Vietnam and Laos will
be designed and implemented at the community level, including an
effective ME framework and an experience-sharing trip to learn from
other communities.
Southeast Asia is increasingly being affected by extreme climate change, such as floods, droughts and tropical cyclones.
People who are most affected by climate change are the rural poor living in areas with limited adaptive capacity.
According
to the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment
Report, Southeast Asia is expected to be greatly affected by climate
change, especially the agriculture industry.-VNA