The Alliance partners are expected to address adaptation to climate change impacts, but how does this fit into our principle of activities driven by local level priorities. In the media and among the development community much is talked about regional initiatives, climate change proof development, policies supporting climate change adaptation, etc.

The Alliance partners needs to look into what they are currently doing to see whether the work is in fact addressing adaptation to climate change. In the Alliance framework we have the notion of adaptation to change, may it be from climate change or other things (such as dam and road building), but we need to start highlighting the initiatives that are addressing climate change impacts. For example, nipa palm wetlands rehabilitation in Quang Nam would be one such initiative.

Apart from showing what we are doing to help communities adapt to climate change impacts, we really need to identify and document experiences on the ground. In so many regional meetings there is much talk about the adaptation measures, but still limited practical examples and experiences. Some of you have already been contacted by UNEP regarding climate change adaptation work on the ground.

In order for the Alliance to fulfill its aim to provide inputs of local level experience in regional fora I would appreciate if we could start listing and describing the adaptation measures our partners are doing. We can start by listing them in this forum, and once we have some materials we may consolidate it elsewhere.

Climate Change is increasingly blamed for local environmental changes that negatively affect local eco-systems and the livelihoods of local communities. Coastal erosion, degradation of wetland ecosystems, devastating floods and droughts, declining fish stocks and extreme variations in water levels of major rivers are explained as caused by climate change. Land use change and resource use practices such as coastal aquaculture, irrigation systems, farming and fishing activities, hydro-power and infrastructure development, pollution and general population growth are conveniently overlooked in the public discourse on local adaptation strategies. Addressing these issues as the immediate causes for local environmental change is critical for mitigating long-term local climate change impacts and designing appropriate adaptation strategies.

However, the processes inducing these local environmental changes, are usually out of the reach and control of those communities and people who are most affected. For these local communities it actually does not matter whether the local environmental changes are caused by climate change, are driven by global markets for agricultural products or caused by national infrastructure development programs. For them it is important to have the capacities necessary to adapt to these changes and take charge of those they can control.

This is what the Wetlands Alliance means by capacity building: enabling local people and communities to adapt to an ever faster changing environment and to master these changes; enabling them not to be overrun by the changes brought about by development, but to stay ahead.

To better understand the already existing adaptive capacities of local communities to environmental change, Alliance Partner AIT is currently supporting research in fishing communities along the Mekong in Northeastern Cambodia.
This year, the Mekong river water level was at a record low, probably the lowest ever. Severe impacts on fishery resources and thus local livelihoods are expected. While various groups were quick in explaining this drought as caused by hydro-power projects upstream or climate change, depending on their respective interests, people along the river simply had no choice: they had to cope.

AIT’s research seeks to understand the impacts of this extremely low water level on local livelihoods and how fishing communities adapt. Understanding how fishing communities come to grips with the impacts of the low water level will provide the foundation to design appropriate strategies for increasing the adaptive capacities of fishers not only to the extremely low water and climate change, but to the wide range of changes brought about by development.