Climate change adaptation project launched to sustain wetlands
A project valued at US$4.7 million was launched on September 12 in Vientiane, aiming to help communities in and around the Xe Champhone, and Beung Khiat Ngong wetlands to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Department of Environmental Quality Promotion, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, will jointly implement the project with funding from the Global Environment Facility from this year until 2020. The department’s Acting Director General, Mr Lonkham Ardsanavong, announced the launch of the project, which he said had received funding authorisation from GEF. Laos ratified the Convention on Wetlands in September 2010 with the Xe Champhon wetland in Savannakhet province’s Champhon district and the Beung Khiat Ngong wetland in Champassak province’s Pathoumphon district recognised as Ramsar sites.
