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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• Interviews allowed us to gain access to unpublished information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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