Wednesday 7th April - A USD 10 million initiative, financed by the Green Climate Fund, is using ‘nature-based solutions’ in four cities of Lao PDR to build resilience towards flooding caused by climate change. The project is expected to benefit 10 per cent of the country’s population.
The five-year project is restoring urban wetland and stream ecosystems to regulate water flow and reduce flood risk. The initiative aims to shift the paradigm of urban flood management in Lao PDR, from hard infrastructure towards the integration of nature-based solutions.
On 7th April, the project was officially launched at an event in Crowne Plaza Hotel attended by senior government officials, academia, UN agencies, and other key stakeholders.
“Lao PDR is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change impacts such as floods and droughts”, says Dr. Saynakhone Inthavong, the Vice Minister, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Lao PDR. “This project could help us to reduce the damage of floods in urban areas and build resilience of communities to climate change.”
The method of using nature-based solutions to reduce the negative impacts of climate change is known as ecosystem-based adaptation. A growing body of scientific research, including the recent Adaptation Gap Report, shows that these solutions can be vastly more cost-effective compared to ‘hard’ infrastructure solutions.
The project represents a new frontier on two counts: It’s the first urban Ecosystem-based Adaptation project to be funded by the Green Climate Fund in the country, and it’s the largest ever urban ecosystem-based adaptation project in Lao PDR to date.
Through climate risk modelling and consultations with planning institutions in Lao PDR, the cities Vientiane, Paksan, Savannakhet, and Pakse were identified as the most vulnerable to climate change. As a result, the project will be focusing on these four cities.
The initiative is being executed by Lao PDR’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
In addition to building climate resilience, the ecological restoration, especially in the Paksan wetland, will have additional benefits of supporting biodiversity and improving habitats for the Siamese tiger perch and Jullien’s golden carp, both of which are endangered species.
“Nature-based solutions, such as those promoted in this project, offer cost-effective ways of managing flood risk”, says Ms. Sara Sekkenes, the UN Resident Coordinator for Lao PDR. “The project works to help strengthen the evidence base around these solutions, so that successful solutions may be promoted and adopted more widely.”
As part of the broader global efforts on promoting EbA, the newly launched Global EbA Fund is seeking to overcome barriers to nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation by providing seed capital to innovative approaches. Learn more about the Fund here.
For more information, please contact Marcus.Nield@un.org
