24/10/2017

The Embassy of the Netherlands pays learning visit to MAMII project

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After a recent conferent on climate change resilience in Can Tho, SNV hosted a visit by mr. Laurent Umans (First Secretary of The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Vietnam) on a learning visit to Vietnames province of Ca Mau. It is is one of the top five provinces in Vietnam heavily suffering from climate change effects, and it has become very vulnerable to the sea level rise in the recent years. Climate change has left negative impacts on soil erosion rates, soil salinity and caused great difficulties to the local lives.

Mr. Umans and SNV met representatives from the Provincial People Committee of Ca Mau (PPC) province and representatives of relevant departments (Department of Agriculture & Rural Development (DARD), Department of Natural Resources and Environment and Department of Planning & Investment) to share knowledge and experiences of the province to adapt to and mitigate climate change. They discussed the MAMII project (funded by the German Ministry for Environment), which creates climate change resilience in shrimp aquaculture by promoting mangrove forest protection and increasing community resilience. The PPC and DARD of Ca Mau had raised their appreciation to the project, because it created options for promoting mangrove and shrimp integration for sustainable development and bringing business sector to the platform.

Mr. Laurent also shared some great lessons and experience of The Netherlands in water management with the representatives of Ca Mau Department of Agriculture & Rural development. The Netherlands has supported the Mekong Delta in conducting large scale study to develop 4 scenarios for development trend of the Mekong delta in climate change. In addition, they are continuing in giving technical support to the Mekong Delta Development Plan in climate change.

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Mr. Laurent Umans also spent a day visiting MAM project sites. He met with the Nhung Mien Forest Management Board (FMB) and several shrimp farmers, beneficiaries of the MAM II project, to discuss the impact of climate change and the MAMII project on their farming practices.