The South East Asia: Regional Environmental Adaptation to Climate Change Training and Implementation (SEA: REACTi) Project was implemented in Lao and Vietnam during 2013.
Context: South East Asia is annually affected by extreme climates; particularly floods, droughts and tropical cyclones, while large areas of the region are prone to flooding or severely affected by monsoons. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) fourth assessment report, South East Asia was expected to be seriously affected by the adverse impacts of climate change since most economies rely on agriculture, natural resource management and land management. These climatic impacts have the potential to threaten the livelihoods of the rural poor, who live in areas with limited adaptive capacity.
Rural farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to manage their yearly production quotas as adverse and unpredictable weather conditions are making it increasingly difficult to plan and implement their annual plans. Rather than being proactive, climate change is forcing rural farmers to be reactive to the circumstances, which makes it increasingly difficult for rural farmers to adapt to the changing climate.
The overarching goal of the South East Asian South East Asia: Regional Environmental Adaptation to Climate Change Training and Implementation (SEA: REACTi) Project will be to open up a dialogue between inter-sectoral partners within the ASEAN community and to design an effective community based climate change adaptation model, with a specific focus of scaling it up and integrating it at the conclusion of the project.
A particular focus was placed upon governmental partners within the 2 countries of Lao and Vietnam. These governmental partners were tasked with developing 2 pilot projects in partnership with ADRA to be implemented in their respective countries based upon the needs and desires of the local community members. Finally, a project dissemination workshop was held at the conclusion of the 12-month project so that project participants could share experiences and lessons learned. Specific focus was placed upon strategies and plans to scale up the pilot projects, including methods and ways to integrate the adaptation learning and experiences into existing ADRA Australia projects that were currently operating in Lao and Vietnam.
PROJECT PARNTERS:
- ADRA AUSTRALIA
- ADRA LAO AND ADRA VIETNAM
- XIENGKHUANG PROVINCIAL AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY DEPARTMENT, LAO PDR
- CAN THO DISTRICT, VIETNAM
