By Suy Se
AFP
After years of drought farmer Tep Deab had learned to get by on the diminishing rice harvests coaxed from the hard-packed paddies surrounding her village near the Vietnamese border. But this season it was the other weather extreme that now has her struggling to feed her family until the next crop can be planted. "We haven't had a regular rainfall since 1992, but this year was strange," said the 42-year-old, standing amidst her rice plants-a few dull yellow stalks drowned by a monsoon deluge that came, unexpectedly, too late in the season. "Now sometimes it is too hot, sometimes it is too cold. We don't know why, everything has changed here," she said.
Impoverished countries like Cambodia, where most scratch out a subsistence living by farming, are among some of the worst-hit by climate change, say experts who describe agriculture as a losing gamble against increasingly unpredictable weather. "Cambodia spells out the problem of climate change in a very powerful way," said Nicky Wimble of the development group Oxfam, pointing out the country frequently suffers drought and flooding, sometimes in the same province.
Because of the climate change the rainfall comes late, it's erratic," she said. "People don't know when to plant and their harvests are very low yield," she added, speaking ahead of a pivotal global climate change conference on the Indonesian island of Bali this week. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference aims to see countries agree to launch a roadmap for negotiating cuts in climate-changing carbon emissions from 2012, when current pledges under the Kyoto Protocol expire.
Wimble says however, that adaptation-the ability of poor rural countries to shift from centuries-old agricultural practices to more sustainable methods-is equally crucial. This could include a range of projects, from tree-plantings that decrease the ravages of flooding to the construction of irrigation systems to combat dry spells.
Education programs to help farmers better prepare for weather extremes or even find alternative sources of income are also being touted. "We want to see more discussion and more commitment made to adaptation funding, so that poor people in countries like Cambodia can actually adjust to the very difficult circumstances that climate change is throwing at them," Wimble said. "The Cambodian government has put together a very good plan, but they now need the funding to be able to carry out this plan and this is what Bali is about.
Cambodia's cabinet last year approved 39 projects designed to ease the effects of climate change after beginning in 2003 to develop a masterplan that addresses the country's rising climate problems. "Climate change is causing problems with floods and drought," said Ponn Narith, deputy secretary general of Cambodia's National Disaster Management Committee. The government spends tens of millions of dollars each year-most of it donated by the international community-to mitigate the effects of extreme weather.
Regular droughts see food crops wither and market prices for staples such as rice soar, while flooding displaces thousands who are often forced to camp out on roadsides for weeks. "People need a lot of help, but we cannot respond to their needs on time," Ponn Narith added, calling Cambodia and other poor countries the "victims" of the developing world, whose industrialized economies have been most blamed for climate change. "We feel that because least developed countries are suffering from problems that are caused by somebody else, it is fair that these countries in particular get funding to support their adaptation projects," said Tin Ponlok, who manages the government's National Adaptation Program. "Unfortunately adaptation has received much less attention so we really want to see this trend reversed, we really want to get tangible support, not just talks," he added.
Impoverished countries like Cambodia, where most scratch out a subsistence living by farming, are among some of the worst-hit by climate change, say experts who describe agriculture as a losing gamble against increasingly unpredictable weather. "Cambodia spells out the problem of climate change in a very powerful way," said Nicky Wimble of the development group Oxfam, pointing out the country frequently suffers drought and flooding, sometimes in the same province.
Because of the climate change the rainfall comes late, it's erratic," she said. "People don't know when to plant and their harvests are very low yield," she added, speaking ahead of a pivotal global climate change conference on the Indonesian island of Bali this week. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference aims to see countries agree to launch a roadmap for negotiating cuts in climate-changing carbon emissions from 2012, when current pledges under the Kyoto Protocol expire.
Wimble says however, that adaptation-the ability of poor rural countries to shift from centuries-old agricultural practices to more sustainable methods-is equally crucial. This could include a range of projects, from tree-plantings that decrease the ravages of flooding to the construction of irrigation systems to combat dry spells.
Education programs to help farmers better prepare for weather extremes or even find alternative sources of income are also being touted. "We want to see more discussion and more commitment made to adaptation funding, so that poor people in countries like Cambodia can actually adjust to the very difficult circumstances that climate change is throwing at them," Wimble said. "The Cambodian government has put together a very good plan, but they now need the funding to be able to carry out this plan and this is what Bali is about.
Cambodia's cabinet last year approved 39 projects designed to ease the effects of climate change after beginning in 2003 to develop a masterplan that addresses the country's rising climate problems. "Climate change is causing problems with floods and drought," said Ponn Narith, deputy secretary general of Cambodia's National Disaster Management Committee. The government spends tens of millions of dollars each year-most of it donated by the international community-to mitigate the effects of extreme weather.
Regular droughts see food crops wither and market prices for staples such as rice soar, while flooding displaces thousands who are often forced to camp out on roadsides for weeks. "People need a lot of help, but we cannot respond to their needs on time," Ponn Narith added, calling Cambodia and other poor countries the "victims" of the developing world, whose industrialized economies have been most blamed for climate change. "We feel that because least developed countries are suffering from problems that are caused by somebody else, it is fair that these countries in particular get funding to support their adaptation projects," said Tin Ponlok, who manages the government's National Adaptation Program. "Unfortunately adaptation has received much less attention so we really want to see this trend reversed, we really want to get tangible support, not just talks," he added.
1 comment:
Sad to hear the troubles in Cambodia. Stories such as this really make me appreciate all I have. Keep up the good work.
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