Mekong - U.S. Partnership
Last week, Kok Klang villagers in Thailand’s Sakon Nakhon Province hosted a unique ceremony that brought Buddhist and Catholic clergy together to bless the forests around their village. The event acknowledged the community and local government’s support for the restoration and preservation of these forest ecosystems.
The ceremony also launched a set of climate change adaptation activities in the area by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (USAID Mekong ARCC) project and its local partner International Union for Conservation of Nature-Thailand.
Villagers rely on the forests as a source for farming and household water supply, but these water sources have increasingly dwindled during the dry months in recent years. According to the USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Study, Sakon Nakhon Province is expected to experience increases in temperature and drought as a result of climate change that will likely further the loss of these water reserves.
To preserve them, USAID Mekong ARCC supports adaptation activities such as enrichment planting and the preservation of forest ecosystems. USAID Mekong ARCC and its partners identified these and other adaptation activities now underway with communities in priority provinces across the Lower Mekong Basin.
Source: USAID/RDMA Regional Environment Office Weekly Update
