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ePaper created 2015-12-01, 11:32:17 | version 1.43.00
Commitment 37akzente 2/15 T he bamboo walkway is just half a metre wide. It creaks and rocks a little with every step. Thach Soal walks along it, pointing to the ground beneath. ‘Until 1992 there were houses here,’ says the 66-year-old farmer, ‘but one bad storm destroyed the lot.’ Nothing remains to suggest there were once buildings on this site. The area is now covered by a dense forest of mangroves up to two metres in height. Their fan-like root sys- tems are buried deep into the soil. The knee- high walkway is there to prevent villagers from damaging the roots on their way down to the sea. The village of Au Tho B in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta is now the site of a field study. Mangroves are being used to stop the ad- vance of the sea and protect the hinterland. The project involves national and local au- thorities, as well as those living in the coastal villages affected. The region faces a particular threat from climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Viet Nam as one of the countries that is most vulner able. Large parts of the Mekong Delta lie less than a metre above sea level. Rising sea levels and ever more regular extreme weather events pose additional threats to the region. When high tides or storms wash seawater onto the fields, the land becomes unusable for years – a serious problem for Viet Nam’s third most important economic region and a key area for rice production. The population density is also high: approximately 17 million people live here – one fifth of the country’s total population. The protective mangroves were often used as firewood Viet Nam’s authorities have been aware of the problem for a long time. In the 1990s they began a programme to restore the de- stroyed mangrove forests along the coast- line. In Au Tho B at this time there was vir- tually nothing left of the natural forest, which once stretched along almost the entire coast in this part of Viet Nam. But it was not easy for newly planted mangroves to gain a foothold. ‘People didn’t take much care,’ says Thach Soal. Even though it was illegal, many people simply cut down the man- groves and used them for firewood or sold them at market. As a result, the mangrove forest remained sparse and did little to coun- ter the advance of the sea. The authorities achieved a great deal, says Christian Henckes from GIZ in Hanoi, ‘but a few things were not as good as they could have been.’ They planted the wrong species of mangrove, for example. And there was not enough money to plant mangroves in all the vulnerable areas along the coast. Most impor- tant of all, perhaps, local people were not made aware of how important the mangrove forests are for their habitat. These factors ex- acerbated the problem. So since 2011, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and with additional fund- ing from the Australian Government, GIZ has been taking a different approach: the local population is now involved directly in manag- ing the mangroves. ‘The people here have a vested interest in ensuring the forest remains intact,’ says Henckes, ‘since they are the ones who benefit.’ Inhabitants of the coastal villages involved in the afforestation project are given privileged access to the mangrove forest. They alone are allowed to collect dead wood and catch shrimp, fish and other marine creatures. At the same time, this is the most economi- cally efficient way to manage the forest. The sea is once again being kept at bay In Au Tho B the approach is clearly working. The 450-metre bamboo walkway now » The colour of optimism: green mangroves are everywhere – the plants grow rapidly upwards and outwards towards the sea. Farmer Thach Soal is content. Viet Nam is one of the countries worst affected by climate change. GIZ is helping coastal inhabitants to arm themselves against increasingly extreme weather. The forest is returning to the Mekong Delta TEXT AND PHOTOS Daniel Becker