Improving farming practices for farmers and finding co-investment in the environmental services they provide is the focus of the new Smart Trees-Invest project, says Nhung Bui.
Started this May in Ha Tinh province on the northcentral coast of Viet Nam, the Climate-smart, Tree-based, Co-investment in Adaptation and Mitigation in Asia (Smart Tree-Invest) project will also be implemented in Quang Binh province and two other countries vulnerable to climate change: Indonesia and the Philippines.
Co-funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, the three-year project aims to improve the livelihoods and resilience of smallholder farmers in the face of climate change. How?
‘Through the promotion of climate-smart, tree-based agriculture and involving beneficiaries of environmental services in pilot payment schemes’, explained Dr Delia Catacutan, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Viet Nam country coordinator and project leader.
According to Nguyen Thi Hoa, co-manager of the project in Viet Nam, the project will assess existing farming practices and analyze their vulnerability and adaptive capacity in order to create appropriate interventions using a ‘landscape approach’.
‘During the first year, we will use modelling tools to quantify benefits in terms of environmental services from changes in farming practices’, Ms Nguyen elaborated. ‘After gathering the scientific evidence for business cases to support the maintenance of environmental services, the project will involve potential “payers” in pilot, co-investment schemes. During the final phase, the project will integrate climate-change mitigation and adaptation actions into mainstream policies and programs’.
According to Dr Catacutan, gender issues will also be addressed throughout all phases of the project.
Ha Tinh province
Situated in a monsoonal tropical climate with harsh, cold winters and burning hot summers, Ha Tinh annually suffers from weather extremes: water scarcity during the second half of winter, severe drought in summer, and big storms and heavy rainfall towards the end of summer.
Over the last decade, the province has witnessed increases in both frequency and severity of extreme events, including storms, hot spells, cold spells, floods and flash floods. During 2000–2008, the total infrastructure damage owing to tropical storms was estimated at USD 150 million.
Agricultural productivity is heavily affected by the acute water scarcity. Longer droughts are already being felt under the influence of a changing climate. The major agro-ecosystems in Ha Tinh include peanut and maize, paddy rice, hybrid acacia, aloe wood and mixed home gardens where different fruit trees are planted together.
Weak watershed management in upstream forest areas in combination with rising climate risks are causing sedimentation and landslides in the downstream.
‘Deforestation for timber and cultivation is still taking place on a frequent basis, causing sedimentation in our reservoir’, said Nguyen Van Thong, deputy director of Northern Electricity Investment and Development Joint Stock Company No.1. ‘We don’t have guards to protect the watershed forests in Huong Khe district’.
Trees and tree-based systems can provide various buffering functions to climate risks for local people Without much scientific evidence, farmers in some areas of Ha Tinh are already implementing tree-based practices to cope with climate hazards. For example, farmers in Huong Khe plant acacia or Aquilaria with banana, which diversifies their production and decreases the risk of financial ruin from reliance on a single crop that might fail owing to extreme weather.
‘Integrated systems help cultivated land be more resilient to drought, protect houses from flash floods, and increase incomes especially during the flood season’, said Dr Catacutan.
Much still needs to be done, yet the participation of representatives of the Ho Ho hydropower plant at the inception workshop for the Smart Tree-Invest project demonstrated the possibility for co-investment between beneficiaries of environmental services and farmers in Ha Tinh.
The schemes will be designed in a flexible fashion that fit local contexts and expectations of environmental services' providers such as farmers and beneficiaries, such as hydropower companies.
