Mekong - U.S. Partnership
The USAID-funded Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) project finalized its Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Study for the Lower Mekong Basin. The study, undertaken by a team of more than 20 international and national scientists and researchers and peer reviewed by experts from globally respected research organizations, details anticipated changes to the climate regime of the Lower Mekong Basin and how these will impact key livelihood sectors, including agriculture, capture fisheries and aquaculture, livestock, and natural systems.
The study concludes that the Lower Mekong Basin will experience more extremes – wetter wet seasons, drier dry seasons, higher temperatures, more frequent and extreme flood events – and that these changes will stress traditional agricultural and natural systems in the basin, rendering unsuitable land once thought ideal for certain crops and shifting traditional ecosystems upland.
The study identifies priority provinces throughout the basin that will see the greatest shift in temperature, rainfall, or salinity. The next phase of the ARCC project will focus on supporting vulnerable communities in many of these provinces adapt to anticipated climate change impacts by incorporating scientific findings from the study into community planning and testing resilience strengthening livelihood techniques.
The full study can be downloaded at http://mekongarcc.net/resource/usaid-mekong-arcc-lower-mekong-climate-study-released-download
Related Website: USAID Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (Mekong ARCC)
Source: Source: USAID/RDMA Regional Environment Office Weekly Update
