Desktop Study on - Regional Climate Change Adaptation ...

<strong>Desktop</strong> <strong>Study</strong>
climate change impacts on the natural ecosystems
(UNDP and WREA, 2009). Effectively, Lao PDR’s
socio-economic development has seen significant
adverse effects due to climatic extreme event such as
floods and drought occurring in past years (Lao PDR,
2009a). Especially, the agricultural sector, being
affected by climate change, is a major contributor
to the economy of Lao PDR and the livelihood of
its people. Besides the income, employment, and
food security affected, water and forestry resources
as well as public health are other socio-economic
aspects are influenced by climate change. Indeed,
climate change seems to cause an exacerbation of
already existing man-made environmental risks
such as environmental degradation as well as of
natural disasters (Lao PDR, 2009a).
Also, socio-economic conditions and food insecurity
of Lao’s rural population appear to be strongly
related: According to the WFP-study (2007) on Lao
PDR’s food security situation, people affected by
food insecurity tend to be farmers that are lowly
educated, illiterate, from non-Lao-Thai ethnic
groups, practicing farming in upland and highly
sloped areas, and living in villages with poor sanitary
and infrastructural conditions.
Adaptation
In the Lao Province of Attapeu, a vulnerability
assessment of climate risks was carried out under
the Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation
and Sustainable Use Programme in 2005 (ADPC,
2005). The study recommended enhanced livelihood
options to being less vulnerable to severe flooding
and droughts. Options to diversify activities in an
agrarian economy include agro-processing, eco-/
agro-tourism, and the promotion of traditional
handicrafts. The availability of credit systems for
village communities is proposed as another option
for supporting sustainable livelihoods (ADPC, 2005).
A study on local coping mechanisms in disaster
management has been published in 2002, focusing
on how rural poor in Laos are applying coping
mechanisms in response to shocks to their livelihoods
caused by disasters (Brahmi and Poumphone, 2002).
The study revealed that there is a considerable gap
between the perception of the government and most
development practitioners, on the one hand, and the
perception of the poor population, on the other hand,
with respect to the definition of a `disaster´. The
latter can be distinguished between a `big disaster´
and `ongoing disasters´. The investigation revealed
that recurrent seasonal human diseases constitute
the greatest threat to the people’s livelihoods, since
human labour constitutes the essential resource
for the provision of food through hunting, fishing,
and agriculture. In the case of illness, the level of
subsistence cannot be sustained besides disasters
bring varying degree of coping scope. Also, the
study shows that currently ongoing economic,
socio-cultural and environmental changes in Laos
significantly impact the indigenous coping capacity
of the poor’s’ livelihoods. The critical changes include
rapid population growth, expansion of the market
economy, and the relocation of communities from
forested mountains to valleys, which leads to the
incapacity of populations to adapt the food production
to unfamiliar environment and market conditions,
and to withstand lowland diseases and climatic
conditions. The access to market, for instance, seems
to have affected the use of kinship and solidarity
as coping mechanisms in the case of disasters.
The recommendation formulated in the study is
that disaster management must be mainstreamed
into rural development programming. According
to the study, there is already some evidence that
disaster management programs in Laos are already
increasingly focusing on addressing the causes of the
population’s vulnerability to disasters for mitigating
their effects (Brahmi and Poumphone, 2002).
Institutional Responses
Poverty reduction is a key goal of the Lao PDR
government and constitutes the basis for the
Government policies formulated in the National
Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES) in
2003, aiming at overcoming Lao PDR’s status of a LDC
by 2020 (Lao PDR, 2009a). Also, thanks to education
development plans, progress in the education level
of the population could be achieved, with the adult
literacy rate rising from 73% in 2005 to 77% in
2007. Overall, Lao PDR has improved its position in
the Human Development Index of the United Nations
from rank 141 (out of 173) in 1993 to the rank 133
(out of 179) in 2009 (Lao PDR, 2009a).
In 2006, the Sixth National Socio-Economic
Development Plan (NSEDP) 2006-2010 was
published (Lao PDR, 2006). This Plan aims at
supporting the achievement of the goals that
were outlined in the Ten-Year Socio-Economic
Development Strategy (2001-2010), including the
establishment of a fast and stable development. The
Plan’s targets and indicators mostly coincide with
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the
Brussels Programme of Action for Least Developed
countries (2001-2010) (Lao PDR, 2006). It has to be
noted, however, that the NSEDP does not address the
threat posed through climate change to the country’s
development.
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