Dong Thap Province, Viet Nam, 26 January 2018 – International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in collaboration with The
The collaboration originated from the idea of “Monkey Cheeks” funded by
In recent years, the Delta has become highly vulnerable to extreme flooding, droughts, and rising sea levels leading to saltwater intrusion. This situation is further aggravated by water control infrastructure such as high dikes, canals, and sluice gates built for intensive yet unsustainable agricultural activities such as triple rice cropping.
The project will train and assist farmers in Dong Thap, Long An, and An Giang Provinces in the Mekong Delta to adopt financially attractive, low risk, flood-based livelihoods as alternatives to unsustainable triple rice cropping. The results will be scaled up across the upper delta by integrating the project approach into new provincial land and water use plans, a proposed Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) Water Retention Strategy in the Mekong Delta and other initiatives in response to the impacts of climate change.
“Given the negative situation in the Mekong Delta brought about by climate change, it is imperative for both public and private sector to work together and do what we can to support the communities in this region,” said Mr. Sanket Ray, CEO of
The provinces of Dong Thap, Long An, and An Giang will be the pilot areas of this project. It will target 450 hectares of flood-based livelihoods, conserving or restoring approximately 6.7 million m3 per year of flood retention capacity. It is expected that scaling up the demonstration will help restore some of the 4 billion m3 of water retention that was lost in the decade from 2000 and 2011.
Implementing the idea of water retention is a complex matter involving multiple sectors and stakeholders. Flood-based livelihoods are only one facet of the challenge, but arguably one of the most important since it involves some of the most vulnerable stakeholders, the farmers whose land will act as flood retention area. Their participation and involvement in developing a water retention strategy is crucial to the success of the idea,” opined Dr. Andrew Wyatt, IUCN’s Mekong Delta program manager. “If the project can demonstrate solutions to the technical and market challenges, farmers will be able to benefit by profiting from the floods. The approach of using nature-based solutions to address climate change, and we consider flood-based agriculture as a nature-based solution, is now a key direction of the government which is reflected in National Resolution 120. IUCN firmly believes that nature-based solutions will also assist the government to reduce its budgetary and debt burden by avoiding the need to build ever more high dikes.”
In addition to this idea,
Guided by
Media contact:
Nguyen Thuy Anh
Communication and Outreach Officer
IUCN Viet Nam
Phone: +84916451166
E-mail: thuyanh.NGUYEN@iucn.org
Vũ Thanh Trúc
PR and Sustainability Manager
Coca-Cola Viet Nam
Phone: +84918872279
Email: vu@coca-cola.com
About The
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About
Coca-Cola is one of the best-known international brands in Vietnam.
About IUCN
IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,300 Member organisations and the input of more than 16,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. www.iucn.org.
About IUCN Viet Nam
IUCN has a long history in Viet Nam since it first supported the government in the mid of 1980s. In 1993, Viet Nam became state member of IUCN and the country office was set up in the same year. Since then, IUCN has made important contributors to biodiversity conservation and environmental protection, primarily through support to the development of laws and policies such as the National Biodiversity Action Plan (1995), the National Environment and Sustainable Development Plan (1991-2000), the Forest Law (2004), the Environment Protection Law (2005), and the Biodiversity Law (2008).
IUCN works in two main thematic areas: water and wetlands and coastal and marine. Our programmes include the formation of multi-stakeholder groups to supervise project activities, support local NGOs though small grant financing, finance pilot projects to test improved practices, improve the quality of environmental news, engaging business to improve their environmental performance, and cooperate with provincial governments to demonstrate the benefits of nature-based solutions to environmental problems. IUCN also implements the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) programme in the Indo-Burma Hotspot. For further information, pls. visit: www.iucn.org/vietnam.
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