Posted
on 02 October 2009 - Bangkok, Thailand -
The Greater Mekong region is already strongly
affected by climate change and a lack of
immediate action will come at great cost
to the region, states a new WWF report released
during the UN climate change talks in Bangkok.
Average daily temperatures
across Southeast Asia have already increased
between 0.5 and 1.5ºC over the last
50 years, and temperatures are predicted
to rise between 2ºC to 4ºC in
the Greater Mekong region by the end of
the century. These changes have negatively
affected the area, which is one of the most
biologically diverse in the world.
“Greater regional cooperation
and coordination among Mekong nations is
necessary to best cope with the impacts
of climate change,” said Geoffrey Blate,
Climate Change Coordinator for the WWF Greater
Mekong Programme. “Maintaining ecosystem
health across borders and over larger areas
is likely the most cost efficient and effective
long term adaptation strategy available.”
Already sea level rise
is threatening the region’s coastal communities
and changes to the climate are stressing
ecosystems. Land is being lost in coastal
zones, glacial melting in the Himalayas
may impact the region’s major river flows,
and wetlands will either dry up or flood
out.
Such climate changes
exacerbate current regional pressures such
as habitat loss, poorly planned infrastructure
and unsustainable natural resource extraction,
further degrading the ecosystems upon which
the region’s social and economic future
depends.
In its report, WWF recommends
three key climate change adaptation strategies
to reduce vulnerability across the region,
which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand, Vietnam, and southwest provinces
of China. These strategies include the protection
of regional ecosystems, a reduction in non-climate
stresses such as unsustainable infrastructure
and over extraction of natural resources,
and the implementation of a regional climate
change adaptation agreement.
“There is a leadership
opportunity here to champion what would
be Asia’s first regional climate change
adaptation agreement to help Greater Mekong
nations prepare for the inevitable impacts
of climate change,” said Blate.
But the report stresses
that without decisive action on a global
scale it would be very hard to avoid the
worst impacts. It urges politicians to strike
an ambitious and fair agreement on a climate
treaty at upcoming talks in Copenhagen.
“Rich and developed
nations must make deep emission cuts and
commit to significant financial help to
assist vulnerable regions such as the Greater
Mekong,” said Kim Carstensen, Leader, WWF
Global Climate Initiative.
Nicole Frisina, Communications Officer,
Greater Mekong Programme
Natalia Reiter, Media Officer, WWF International
Ashwini Prabha, (English, Hindi, Fijian)
Notes to the Editor
• To download the full
report go to: http://www.divshare.com/folder/609576-f98
• WWF is working with
governments and industry of the six Greater
Mekong nations to conserve and sustainably
manage 600,000 km2 of transboundary forest
and freshwater habitats in this unique and
rapidly changing land.
• The Greater Mekong
grouping of countries is committed to increasing
cooperation for accelerated economic development
as facilitated by the Asian Development
Bank. Economic activity and associated investments
in infrastructure development is concentrated
along three "economic corridors"
that crisscross the region and have the
potential both to lift the region's rural
populations out of poverty but also to exacerbate
existing threats, ultimately depleting the
natural resource base upon which long-term
development of the region depends.
• Sixteen of WWF’s Global
200 ecoregions, critical landscapes of international
biological importance, are found in the
Greater Mekong. These landscapes are home
to rare Asian elephants and Indochinese
tigers, and one of only two populations
of Javan rhino in the world. In addition
to rare populations of Irrawaddy dolphins,
the Mekong River basin is estimated to house
at least 1,300 species of fish, including
the Mekong giant catfish, one of the largest
freshwater fish in the world. By length,
the Mekong is the richest waterway for biodiversity
on the planet, fostering more species per
unit area than the Amazon. Many of the species
are endemic to the region.
