Mekong - U.S. Partnership
Interfaith Forest Blessing Ceremony Held in Thailand to Preserve Ecosystem Services Important to Climate Change Adaptation
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…
Thailand Hosts Regional Meeting on Lower Mekong Initiative
Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is hosting the 7th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Regional Working Group Meeting to discuss cooperation in several areas, aiming at moving toward the ASEAN integration at year-end.Outcomes of the two-day meeting hosted by the Foreign Affairs Ministry will be used to review a draft of the Master Plan of Action…
Water Supply and Sanitation Assessments in Villages in Thailand and Laos to Inform Communities’ Climate Resilient Adaptation Measures
In late December 2014, the USAID Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change project (USAID Mekong ARCC) began water supply studies in communities in Sakon Nakhon, Thailand and Khammouan, Lao PDR to gain a better understanding of water sources and sanitation methods to inform community climate adaptation plans and measures.During previous fieldwork, these communities identified…
Mekong Countries Meet to Address Drivers of Deforestation
USAID LEAF and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations gathered representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam in Bangkok from January 20 to 21 to develop national action plans on drivers of deforestation and a decision support tool on forestry and climate change policy.Representatives from participating Mekong countries presented the results…
USAID Partners with Johns Hopkins University to Support Off-grid Solar in Cambodia
Over the past several months, USAID’s Private Financing Advisory Network-Asia (PFAN-Asia) has been collaborating with a team of four graduate school consultants from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) to research and develop a report, The Business Case For: Off- grid Solar in Cambodia.The purpose of this study is to identify…
Practitioners Advance Fire Management Expertise
More than 25 practitioners working on land and fire management issues came together from January 21 to 22 in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the Regional Training on Fire Management Planning for Northern Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states.While commonly used in Southeast Asia for agriculture and land clearing, fires in the region can…
Cambodian Universities Introduce Climate Change Curriculum
The Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) and Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) worked with USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (USAID LEAF) and USAID Cambodia Supporting Forests and Biodiversity in Phnom Penh from January 15 to 16 on a national seminar to introduce the USAID LEAF Climate Change Curriculum countrywide.Eighty climate change leaders and…
USAID Project Trains Vietnam Villagers to Strengthen Climate Change Resilience in Shrimp Farming and Pig Raising
On January 7 and 8, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (USAID Mekong ARCC) project trained village members from Thuan Hua Commune in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta on adapting their livelihoods to the impacts of climate change.These trainings covered improving the management of shrimp farming to better address anticipated…
Report Estimates Lower Mekong Basin Economies Risk $34 Billion/Year from Climate Change
The U.S. Agency for International Development's Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (USAID Mekong ARCC) project has just released a report entitled “Climate Change in the Lower Mekong Basin: An Analysis of Economic Values at Risk.”Authored by Senior Economist John Talberth of World Resources Institute, a USAID Mekong ARCC partner, the report estimates that…
Thailand to Host the 7th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Regional Working Group Meeting
The Lower Mekong Initiative Regional Working Group Meeting will take place in Bangkok during 29-30 January 2015 with an emphasis on the cooperation on water, energy, and food issues.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will host the 7th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Regional Working Group (RWG) Meeting on 29-30 January 2015 in Bangkok.The topics of discussion…
Assessment of the Enabling Environment for Cross-Boarder Trade of Agricultural Inputs in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia
This study assesses the agribusiness-enabling environment for cross-border trade in the Lower Mekong region by focusing on specific indicators of four key agricultural inputs: seed, fertilizer, pesticide, and fish fry. The study examines the country-level and regional issues in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia with respect to (1) administrative (in)efficiency, (2) transaction costs, and (3) strength…
Training on Renewable Energy Modeling Tool Supports Green Growth Planning in Vietnam
The USAID Low Emissions Asian Development and Vietnam Forest and Deltas programs provided training from January 7 to 9 for 16 provincial government, academic and business partners in Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam on map-based software to model and assess renewable energy potential.Attendees learned the functions and uses of the Geospatial Toolkit, an application developed by…
