Using mangrove forests as a hedge against rising sea levels, floods and salinization is one of many key strategies needed to help the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s granary, deal with climate change.
The measure was proposed by an expert at a seminar on measures to cope with climate change in the Mekong Delta held in Kien Giang Province June 24
At the seminar, local and foreign scientists and researchers provided a comprehensive assessment of the environmental situation in the region and proposed some specific ways to prevent and alleviate natural disasters and adapt to climate change.
Every year, an area of nearly two million hectares in northern Mekong Delta is inundated, 1.4 million hectares of coastal land is covered by salt, 1.2 million hectares of depression areas are heavily contaminated with alum, and 2.1 million heaters of remote areas lack freshwater, they said.
If climate change pushes the sea to rise one meter, nearly 40 percent of the Mekong Delta will be submerged and 70 percent of the region will be salinized, destroying two million hectares of land used for growing rice.
The provinces of Ben Tre, Long An, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang and Vinh Long will flood, losing 40-50 percent of their areas each on average.
Dr. Le Anh Tuan from the Institute of Climate Change Research at Can Tho University, said people in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have begun adapting to climate change by adjusting their farming schedules, choosing sapling varieties that can stand bad weather, growing plants around houses, recycling rubbish and wastewater, saving water, and changing the architecture of their homes.
Tree cover
Jean Henry Laboyrie, project director at Dutch consulting company Royal Haskoning, said rising sea levels and changes of river flows called for more visionary plans.
He said protecting and maintaining coastal salt water-covered mangrove forests was the best way to prevent water from flowing too far inland in the Mekong Delta.
Protecting and/or planting mangrove forests has long been considered an effective and all-natural way to reduce the threats of climate change.
Dr. Geoffrey Blate, Climate Change Coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund's Greater Mekong Program, said the region’s biodiversity, which helps increase the capacity to fight the impacts of climate change and reduce the risks from volatile weather, needs to be protected.
Koos Neefjes, Policy Advisor on Climate Change of the United Nations Development Program, said international organizations could provide Vietnam with US$500 million-2 billion annually to deal with climate change.
Therefore, he said, there must be a concrete strategy to cope with the problem
On the same day, a ceremony was held in Kien Giang province to inaugurate a new world biosphere reserve zone and receive its UNESCO certificate.
The Kien Giang World Biosphere Reserve was recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on October 27, 2006.
The biosphere covers more than one thousand ha of sea, islands and land, including the national parks of U Minh Thuong and Phu Quoc, as well as the Kien Luong-Ha Tien protected forest and other mangrove forests.
The area is home to various ecosystems with 1,480 species of flora and 860 species of fauna, and 38 historical-cultural sites.
The Mekong Delta is known as Vietnam’s largest granary and seafood depot with its rice and seafood output accounting for 53 percent and 60 percent of the country’s respective totals.
Global warming has been proven worldwide to have negative impacts on biodiversity, especially in the Mekong Delta.
The region is a hub of biodiversity in the Asia Pacific region, known for its large number of endangered species in recent years and 1,000 new species discovered during the last decade.
