VietnamNet Bridge
26 December 2014
Integration of climate-change adaption strategies into policy development, especially at the community level, is needed to cope with weather changes in Viet Nam’s coastal areas, speakers urged at a workshop held in Can Gio last week.
Community and ecosystem-based solutions are badly needed as well, according to participants.
More than 70 delegates from four major coastal areas met last week at the Building Coastal Resilience (BCR) End of Project workshop. Representatives from Kien Giang, Ben Tre, Soc Trang provinces and HCM City’s Can Gio District attended the meeting.
The workshop reviewed the Preah Sihanouk Declaration, formulated during the Third Annual BCR Coastal Forum held last month in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville.
The BCR project has been implemented in Viet Nam for four years.
Speaking at the event, Doan Van Son, vice chairman of Can Gio District’s People’s Committee, said the district had an extensive forest area, covering over 300,000 hectares, of which a large amount was dedicated to mangroves.
“The mangrove forest supports marine life and aquaculture initiatives, but the area is vulnerable to climate change,” he said.
Andrew Wyatt, Mekong Delta Programme Manager at IUCN Viet Nam, said the BCR project had helped further the goals of the National Target Programme for Climate Change, launched in 2011.