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Climate Vulnerability in Coastal Areas

The Case of Sihanoukville

Liam Fee – Sustainable Development Advisor

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Introduction

• UN-HABITAT was invited by the Provincial Government of Preah Sihanouk Province to conduct a city-wide vulnerability assessment

• Fits the broader scope of UN-HABITAT’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI)

• Focused on the Municipality• Pop 90,000 (approx)• Key livelihood sectors: Port, Tourism,

Fisheries

The Case of Sihanoukville, 21st July, 2011, Rex Hotel, HCMC, The 1st Meeting of Climate Change Adaptation Demonstration Projects

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Methodology

• Started with Policy/document reviewo National Levelo Local Level

• Interviews at the National Level• Forming a team at the local level• Interviews at the local provincial level• Community Focus Groups

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Key Issues Arising from the Document Review

• Good coverage of national policy (NAPA), but waiting for 2nd National Communication

• MoE Taking the initiative… CCCA, PPCR, Coastal assessment… but implementation takes time

• No urban policy• No implementation of urban

masterplanning• NAPA’s proposed projects are very rural-

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Background – Local Policies

• Significantly more advanced than most other provinces

• Coastal Management Plan – No specific mention of climate change

• Environmental Management Plan – only in draft

• Provincial Development Plan – currently being drafted

• However no Climate mainstreaming

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Key Issues Arising from interviews

• Interviews allowed us to gain access to unpublished information

• To understand challenges of line departments, local politics, resource constraints, etc

• To access archives – publications which aren’t online

• To allow participation of a broad range of stakeholders – Planning, land, meteorology departments, NGOs, businesses, etc

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Key Issues from Interviews

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Community Focus Groups

• The most difficult aspect of the research because:o Low awareness and education levels among

communitieso Difficult to ‘focus’ discussions on climate

changeo A need to filter useful information from not so

useful informationo Logistical challenges!

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Community Focus Groups

• Most necessary because: o Ensures that the research is participatoryo Allows ‘ground truthing’ of desk research and

interview datao Allows the community to express a ‘narrative’

– their experiences of climate change – which can be re-told to a larger audience

o Allows for a ‘micro-level’ of assessment – we can understand subtle differences between village A and village B, etc

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Community Focus Groups in Sihanoukville• Allows for gender and

age distinctions• In turn, allows

‘quieter’ group members to speak

• Focus group design ensures generation of large amounts of data

PRESENTATION TITLE, Date, VenueConference Name

Collating and Presenting the Results

• No rules here… just compile the information and present it back to stakeholders

• So what were the findings in Sihanoukville?

• Risk• Gradually Increasing temperatures• Gradually increasing rainfall• Sea-level rise, storm damage and tidal

variation are all issues

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Results

• Sensitivityo Climate sensitive livelihoods (tourism and

fisheries) have the potential to be seriously affected

o Housing is often sensitive to climate riskso Marine ecosystems sensitive to various human

activitieso Human health is moderately sensitive –

statistics somewhat contrasted community experiences

o Some infrastructure sensitive – particularly unsealed roads

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Results

• Adaptive Capacity• Policy gap at national level, and lack of

climate mainstreaming at local level• Low awareness among government staff

and community• Lack of available finance – heavy

dependence on donor activity• Tenure insecurity• Sewage and solid waste management

issues

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Cost of Business as Usual

• Particularly high through:o Coastal erosiono Storm damageo Potential future health impactso Damage to homes and infrastrucutreo Loss of livelihoods

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Actions

• Governance frameworkso Mainstreaming climate change into sub-

national planning and finance o Urban masterplanningo Coordination between relevant departmentso Promoting greater livelihood diversification,

including moving away from climate sensitive livelihoods

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Actions

• Piloting small demonstrationso Natural coastal defenceso Storm warnings and meteorological

informationo Better water, sanitation and waste

managemento Increasing awareness among communities and

capacity at local government level

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