The Cambodia Climate Change Alliance Trust Fund (CCCA-TF), under the Ministry of Environment Climate Change Department, has approved 11 new projects to pilot approaches to climate change adaptation in Cambodia, for a total amount of two million US dollars. The approved projects will be implemented from December 2012 to March 2014, and address key areas of the climate change response in Cambodia. Most projects are implemented through partnerships between concerned Government agencies and NGOs. Seven projects are Government-led and four are led by local or international NGOs:
1. The Department of Animal Health and Production, from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, will pilot approaches for the improvement of rural livelihoods through livestock management and preparedness and production technologies adapted to climate change in 4 communes of Pursat and Takeo Provinces. Concerned communes have been selected for their high vulnerability to either droughts or floods. Livestock has been identified as a key area of vulnerability in recent Climate Change Vulnerability Risk Assessments in Cambodia.
2. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs will be working on climate change adaptation for the livelihoods of rural women, aiming to improve climate change adaptation capacity of rural women in Stung Treng and Oddar Meanchey Provinces, with a focus on preparedness for natural disasters.
3. The Provincial Department of Agriculture in Battambang Province will lead a project on climate change adaptive livelihoods of agriculture communities, focusing on improving sustainable livelihood options of target farmers by enhancing adaptation and resilience to drought and flood in vulnerable villages in Thma Koul, Moung Ruessei, and Koas Krala Districts.
4. The National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, Ministry of Health, will conduct several pilots and studies to strengthen national capacity for climate change adaptation in health, through an integrated response to climate sensitive vector-borne diseases. The project will focus on strengthening capacity for dengue and other vector-borne diseases outbreak detection, prevention and response.
5. The Department of Environment in Kampot Province, will implement a project on “water for community climate change adaptation in Kampot”, looking at strengthening local government institutions in Kampot Province to assist vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change in the water sector, taking into account specific climate change risks for water supply and management in coastal areas.
6. The Prek Leap National College of Agriculture will test an approach to build a climate change resilient food system, integrating reservoir management and rice-fish system in Takeo Province. The project will focus on developing a climate resilient food system based on linking terrestrial (rice agronomy) and aquatic (rice field fisheries) activities.
7. The Royal University of Phnom Penh will work on capacity building on climate change, vulnerabilities and adaptation in the water and health sectors for provincial and rural development officials in two flood prone provinces (Kompong Cham and Battambang). The aim is to provide a complete set of knowledge and know-how on climate-informed decision-making for rural water supply and sanitation infrastructure and services.
8. Help Age Cambodia will work on promoting communities’ resilience through increasing adaptive capacity to climate change, working with Older People Associations (OPAs) to demonstrate Climate Change management in 5 villages in Battambang Province, and building awareness of disaster risk reduction/climate change management principles and practices in 35 villages.
9. Mlup Baitongwill lead a project on the promotion of adaptive farming to climate change, looking at adapting traditional farming systems to climate change in order to reduce vulnerability and improve livelihoods, in Kompong Speu province.
10. Conservation International Foundation (CI), will implement an Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) approach to integrate climate change resilient livelihoods and floodplain management for the Tonle Sap. The project looks at building community resilience to climate change by improving the functionality of community fisheries management, enhancing protection of ecosystems critical for sustaining fisheries and other resources people depend upon to survive and thrive, and increasing awareness among policy makers about the role ecosystems play in climate change resilience to influence policy making.
11. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Cambodia) will pilot an Ecosystem-based Adaptation approach to climate change along the Mekong River (Kratie Province), looking at reducing the vulnerability of communities along the Mekong River to the adverse impacts of climate change by protecting and restoring community forests.
These 11 projects will complement the work done by the other 10 pilot projects funded by CCCA since 2011. A key objective of the CCCA programme is to generate lessons learnt on concrete climate change adaptation approaches in the Cambodian context, and contribute to the policy debate as Cambodia finalizes its Climate Change Strategic Plan.
The Cambodia Climate Change Alliance is an initiative led by the Ministry of Environment, with financial support from the European Union, Denmark and Sweden, and financial and technical support from UNDP.
