Kep, Kampot, Preah Sihanouk, and Koh Kong-CAMBODIA: The Cambodian coastal and marine ecosystems, including mangrove forests, coral reefs, seagrass beds, salt marshes and estuaries, are all extremely important to Cambodia's economic development as well as to the livelihoods of the local communities, who are highly dependent on fisheries and other marine and coastal resources.

However, coastal fishing communities in Cambodia are amongst the most vulnerable, due to a high dependence on natural resources, direct exposure to climate vectors (i.e. storms, sea level rise and changing rainfall patterns), overall poverty, remoteness and marginalization. Women even have less adaptation options as they traditionally have less influence over the decisions, including those related to climate adaptation.

There is a range of policy, legal, and technical measures and investments taking place to support coastal development and ecosystem management. However, the current response strategies mainly focus on addressing the root causes and challenges of environmental degradation and other socioeconomic factors not accounting for future climate change. Without additional financing to generate effective adaptation models, establish support frameworks and empower vulnerable communities, the anticipated challenges and costs to address them will increase with climate change.

The “Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Cambodia’s Coastal Fishery Dependent Communities” project, or “CamAdapt”, will contribute to addressing these challenges by implementing appropriate adaptation measures, and enhancing the exiting initiatives related to fisheries and coastal management. CamAdapt will support the coastal fishery-dependent communities in their effort to adapt to climate change through strengthening coastal ecosystems and adapting their livelihoods.

More than 130 officials and experts participated in the four provincial workshops from 7 to 10 May 2019 to validate the CamAdapt project. These participants joined from:

-          the departments of Marine and Coastal Zone Conservation of the Ministry of Environment (MoE), and the provincial departments of Environment;

-          the Fisheries Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), and fisheries cantonments;

-          the representatives from the provincial departments of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, Water Resource and Meteorology, Women Affairs; 

-          provincial governor offices, district and commune council;

-          fishing communities and NGOs;

-          the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Mr Oum Kosal, Assistant FAO Representative in Cambodia emphasized that CamAdapt fully aligns with FAO’s strategy in Cambodia, aiming at contributing to the eradication of poverty, of food insecurity and malnutrition, while progressing towards the sustainable management of the country’s natural resources. He further noted that climate change negatively affects fisheries, aquaculture, and coastal ecosystems, and that has to be addressed in future interventions in order to improve people’s livelihoods and their resilience, especially for fishing communities.

The four provincial workshops provided a platform for discussions on various aspects including common issues related to coastal ecosystems and livelihoods, climate change impacts, proposed climate change adaptation activities, coordination mechanisms -including the proposed CampAdapt’s project management frameworks-, etc. The discussions, involving multi-sectoral expertise, resulted in the identification of practical interventions for climate change adaptations based on context specificities and lessons learnt from previous development initiatives.      

Mr Thay Somony, Director of the Department of Aquaculture Development of the Fisheries Administration (FiA), recognized that climate change remains a challenge for fisheries, aquaculture, and the costal ecosystem. Development interventions should look at ways to strengthen aquaculture activities in order to reduce pressure on the natural stock and meet the food demand. He urged for strong collaboration among the government, the private sector, and development partners to improve aquaculture development through R & D and innovation to support fishing communities.

Mr Sreng Sophal, Deputy Director of the Department of Marine and Coastal Zone Conservation of the MoE, pointed out that climate change affects coral reef, sea grass. Shortage of freshwater for consumption among coastal communities also comes as a result of long drought. He also flagged the issue of micro plastic concentration on the coast that affects aquatic environment and human health.

H.E Ken Sotha, Kep Provincial Governor, confirmed that Kep is rated amongst the most attractive eco-tourism destinations, with good environmental protection (clean beaches, waters and air) and very limited industry development. He highlighted the ‘Sea Bed Park’ as an example of the Royal Government of Cambodia’s commitment toward a clean environment and blue economy development to ensure sustainable tourism development and the protection of natural resources.

H.E Pel Kosal, Deputy Provincial Governor of Kampot indicated that the provincial administration had taken firm measures for the protection of coastal areas, whilst controlling private investment activities to ensure an appropriate balance between natural resource protection and economic development. He highlighted the impact of climate change through the example of the reduction of salt production in Kampot.

H.E Chhin Seng Nguon, Deputy Governor of Preah Sihanouk pointed out that lessons learnt from previous projects would benefit to new projects like CamAdapt and underpin its success. Some problems have already been addressed in previous projects, and CampAdapt should both look at the remaining gaps and provide interventions to overcome failures of the past.

H.E Orn Phirak, Deputy Governor of Koh Kong Province raised some issues faced by the provincial administration such as fresh water shortage, especially in the dry season; the increasing demand for electricity, and increasing land prices.  He stressed that the provincial authorities were taking measures to control illegal land encroachments in protected areas, throgh law enforcment.  H.E Phirak noted that micro plastic due to inappropriate solid waste disposal, both in-shore and off-shore, remained one of the key problems in Koh Kong.

The provincial validation workshops were succesful in mobilizing support for the project, with national and sub-national levels and relevant stakeholders working together to come up with context specific adaptation options for coastal communities, and capacity development plans for their supporting institutions. There was great enthusiasm, involvement and commitment, showing a readiness for taking the necessary steps to enable coastal fishery communities to adapt to climate.

The CamAdapt project is funded by the Least Developed Country Fund of the Global Environmental Facility or GEF. The project will be jointly implemented by FAO, the MoE, and FiA of the MAFF.