Water, livelihoods and climate change adaptation in the Tonle Sap Lake area, Cambodia: learning from the past to understand the future

892019 Water livelihoods and climate change adaptation in the Tonle Sap Lake area Cambodia learning from the past to hellip

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullwater-livelihoods-and-climate-change-adaptation-in-the-tonle-sap-lake-area 115

Water livelihoods and climate change adaptation in theTonle Sap Lake area Cambodia learning from the past tounderstand the future

Paula Nuorteva Marko Keskinen and Olli Varis

ABSTRACT

Paula NuortevaMarko Keskinen (corresponding author)Olli VarisWater and Development Research GroupAalto UniversityPO Box 15200

00076 AALTOFinlandTel +358 50 3824626Fax +358 9 47023856E-mail keskineniki

The changing environment is expected to intensify the challenges that people in developing

countries are facing particularly among the groups whose livelihoods depend on natural

resources The adaptive capacity of livelihoods largely denes the extent to which people can

cope with future environmental changes whether caused by climate change or other factors

such as land use changes and water resources development This article analyses the resilience

and adaptive capacity of rural livelihoods around Cambodiarsquos Tonle Sap Lake an exceptional

lake-oodplain system dominated by ood pulse The research ndings demonstrate that despite

the peoplersquos tradition of adapting to the remarkable seasonal variation of water and related

resources their capacity to adapt to unusual environmental changes is weak with the poorest

being clearly the most vulnerable group Reasons for the weak resilience include villagesrsquo

relatively homogenous livelihood structures unjust governance practices increasing inequality

and the lack of opportunities for livelihood diversication It is concluded that while climate

change is likely to pose a remarkable challenge to peoplersquos livelihoods in the longer term climate

change adaptation activities should also take into account other environmental changes Equally

critical is the understanding of the broader socio-political context and its dynamics in

increasingmdashand decreasingmdashlivelihood resilience

Key words | climate change adaptation livelihoods Mekong River resilience Tonle Sap Lake

water resources management

ABBREVIATIONS

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange

JICA Japan International Cooperation AgencyMPWT Ministry of Public Works and Transport

CambodiaMRC Mekong River CommissionMRCS Mekong River Commission SecretariatNAPA National Adaptation Program of Action

to Climate ChangeSEA START RC Southeast Asia START Regional CenterSTART Global Change SysTem for Analysis

Research and Training network

TKK Helsinki University of Technology (nowpart of Aalto University)

UNDP United Nations DevelopmentProgramme

WUP-FIN Lower Mekong Modelling Project underMRCS

INTRODUCTION

Unique social-ecological system of the Tonle Sap

Climate change adaptation has become one of the focalpoints of current development discussion The reason forthis is two-fold developing countries have high dependence

doi 102166wcc2010010

87 Q IWA Publishing 2010 Journal of Water and Climate Change | 011 | 2010



on climate-sensitive natural resources and the impacts of climate change are estimated to be particularly remarkable

in developing countries ( IPCC 2007 Leary et al 2008)Consequently an increasing amount of resources in bothrural and urban areas is allocated for enhancing the

capacity to respond to the estimated impacts of climatechange Most such impacts are closely related to the

hydrological cycle including oods droughts and storms(UNDP 2006 Ludwig amp Moench 2009 ) While creating alsonew kinds of challenges climate change impacts are likely

Battambang

Sisophon

Kampong Thom

Siem Reap

Pursat

Tonle SapLake

Kampong Chhnang

A

A

B

B

T o n l e S a p

M e k o n gR

i v e rR i v e r

0 75 km

Ta Chraenieng

Preaek Sramaoch

Trav Kiet

DAM DAEK

TonleSap Lake

N

0 4 km

Preaek

Pring Khpos

Prek Ta Kong

During wetseason

During dry season

PURSAT

P u rsa t R i v e r

Tonle Sap Lake0 4 km

National road

Road

Study village

Residential areaPermanent water areaSeasonally flooded area

GrasslandFlooded forest

Provincial capital

National capital

Figure 1 | Map of Tonle Sap area (upper) and the location of the study villages in Pursat (lower left A) and Siem Reap (lower right B) provinces indicating the two crosscuts acrossthe oodplain (Modied from Kummu et al 2008 JICA amp MPWT 1998 a b c )

88 P Nuorteva et al | Water livelihoods and climate change adaptation in the Tonle Sap Lake area Journal of Water and Climate Change | 011 | 2010



to be felt primarily through intensication of the challengesthat people are already facing ( Hultman amp Bozmoski 2006 )

Understanding already existing challengesmdashwhether envi-ronmental or more broadly socio-politicalmdashimpactingpeople and their livelihoods is therefore a prerequisitealso for successful climate change adaptation

The majority of the people living in and aroundCambodiarsquos Tonle Sap Lake the largest freshwater bodyin the Mekong River Basin engage in livelihood strategiesthat are highly dependent on water and natural resourcesThe most dominant livelihoods in the area are ricecultivation and shing both of them inuenced by thedynamic hydrology of the lake and the exceptional ood

pulse system ( Keskinen 2006 MRCSWUP-FIN 2007 ) Theood pulse is closely related to the Mekong River duringthe wet season the oodwaters from the river ow into theTonle Sap Lake expanding the lake area four-fold andincreasing the water depth from a mere 1m up to 10m(MRCSWUP-FIN 2007 ) The ood pulse has a crucial rolein maintaining the lakersquos high aquatic productivity and italso facilitates the rice cultivation in the oodplains by bringing water and fertile silt to the elds ( Figure 1 ) Riceand sh are the cornerstones of food security and income inthe region and sh forms the most important source of

protein for a majority of the Cambodian people ( Bonheur2001 Keskinen 2006 )

Both the Tonle Sap ecosystem and the people living inand around the lake are adapted to the remarkable butregular seasonal variation in the lakersquos water level Anepitome of this adaptation are the oating villages thatallow the people and their houses to follow the remarkableseasonal changes in the lakersquos water level ( Figure 2 )Another unusual village type in the area are the oodplainvillages built on high stilts making them accessible only by boat during the oods ( Figure 3 ) The question is however

whether the peoplersquos livelihoods and the village infra-structures are capable of adapting to more exceptionalenvironmental variations expected to occur as a result of the changing climate and other factors such as land usechanges forest degradation and water development Recentimpact assessment studies indicate that the Tonle Sap areais probably most vulnerable to hydrological changes in theentire Mekong River Basin For example existing plans forconstruction of large-scale hydropower dams in the

Mekong upstream are likely to have remarkable impactsin the Tonle Sap threatening its unique ecosystem and thepeople dependent on them ( MRCSWUP-FIN 2007 Kummu amp Sarkkula 2008 )

In addition to environmental and hydrological changesother issues have an impact on the sustainability of the rurallivelihoods in the Tonle Sap The socio-political context of the area is complex and corrupt management practices andunequal access to resources are common particularly in the

shing villages The shing villages are in many ways in amore difcult situation than those closer to the nationalroads the people are generally poorer less educated havefewer livelihoodoptions andpoorer accessto markets donotown agricultural land and depend strongly on common

Figure 2 | Family on a boat in the oating village of Preaek (Photo Paula Nuorteva)

Figure 3 | Stilt houses in Ta Chraenieng village in the Tonle Sap oodplains (PhotoPaula Nuorteva)




property resources People living in the villages furtheraway from the lake rely heavily on rice cultivation for

their livelihoods and the villagers depending on the cultiva-tion of oating and recession rice are particularly vulnerableto the changes in oods Although people living in theagricultural villages are generally wealthier than those livingon the lake economic disparity in the villages is greater andthe challenges of land availability hinder agricultural devel-opment ( Keskinen 2006 Ratner et al 2007 UNDP 2007 )

This article presents the ndings from research con-ducted in 2008 in the rural villages of the Tonle Sap Lakearea The objective of the research was to assess theresilience and adaptive capacity of local livelihoods in the

area towards changes in the environment and waterresources The aim was also to nd ways in which thepeoplersquos capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate changeand other environmental changes could be increased building on an analysis of the peoplersquos experiences withadapting to environmental changes and challenges in thepast ( Nuorteva 2009 TKK amp SEA START RC 2009 )

The research was carried out as a part of a multi-disciplinary research project conducted jointly by theWater and Development Research Group of the HelsinkiUniversity of Technology (now part of Aalto University)

Finland and Southeast Asia START Regional Center at theChulalongkorn University Thailand The project focused onthe impacts and adaptation to climate change in the LowerMekong Basin ( TKK amp SEA START RC 2009 Keskinenet al 2010) More detailed information about the researchpresented in this article can be found in Nuorteva (2009)

METHODS

Theoretical framework adaptive capacity andresilience

The research presented in this article builds on the conceptsof adaptation resilience and vulnerability of people andtheir livelihoods towards environmental changes Theconcept of adaptation of humans to environmental varia- bility was introduced to anthropology in the early 1900s( Janssen et al 2006) Adaptive capacity or adaptability wasoriginally dened as an ability to live and reproduce in a

specic range of changes in the environment In relationto social-ecological systems the adaptability includes

maintaining and possibly even increasing the quality of life and the viability of social and economic activities(Gallopin 2006 ) In the eld of climate change the term has been in use since the 1990s ( Janssen et al 2006) Accordingto the denition of the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) adaptation to climate change means theadjustments in ecological social or economic systems inresponse to actual or expected climatic stimuli and theireffects ( Smit et al 2001) It includes adjustments that help tomoderate the harm and potentially also to increase the benets from the changing climate both at the present and

in the future ( Leary et al 2008)One way to look at the climate change adaptation is

through the resilience of people towards different kinds of changes in their environment (see eg World ResourcesInstitute 2008 ) The resilience thinking connects closelyto the broader discussion about the vulnerability of people and their livelihoods Resilience can be seen asthe ip-side of vulnerability when a social or ecologicalsystem loses resilience it becomes more vulnerable tochanges that previously could be absorbed and adapted to(Folke et al 2002) Resilience is also considered as a

particularly useful concept for connecting climate change-related analyses to broader social and ecological contextsand Boyd et al (2008) for example describe it as lsquoclimatefriendlyrsquo approach

The concept of resilience was rst used in relation toecological systems ( Holling 1973 ) Ecological resiliencedescribes the magnitude to which an ecosystem can with-stand shocks and stresses and still remain functional ( Adger2000) The concept was extended to social systems in thelate 1980s ( Janssen et al 2006) Compared to ecologicalresilience the resilience of social systems has an additional

capacity of foreseeing and adapting to possible changes andit has therefore been dened as the degree to which asystem is capable of learning and adopting new solutions(Adger 2000 Walker et al 2002) Systems with goodresilience are able to absorb large shocks without havingto change fundamentally To some extent however changesin social-ecological systems are inevitable and they alsoallow resilient systems to develop their capacities as well asto reorganise themselves to match the new circumstances




Resilience is not only about withstanding shocks andstress resilient systems also have a potential to create

opportunities for development and innovation from theoccurring changes ( Folke et al 2002)

The resilience of social systems is linked closely toecological resilience particularly in the communities wherethe livelihoods depend strongly on natural resources ( Adger2000 Folke et al 2002)mdashas is the case in the Tonle Sap Thecapacity of social systems to adapt and to develop is highlydependent on the supporting capacity of the surroundingecosystems and reducing this capacity leads thus also toincreasing vulnerability of the social system Likewise theresilience of an ecological system depends on the actions of

the interlinked social systems leading to a strong anddynamic interdependence between the two Human activi-ties at different geographical scales are capable of dramati-cally changing the surrounding environment whichmay lead to negative changes in the ecological and socialsystems both locally and more regionally ( Folke et al 2002Kummu 2008 )

In terms of adaptation to climate change it is importantto note that besides increasing the occurrence of climatichazards such as storms the projected impacts caused byclimate change are likely to add to and intensify already

existing stresses on human populations ( Hultman ampBozmoski 2006 Pachauri 2008 ) Consequently increasingthe adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities tochallenges from various sourcesmdashincluding but not limitedto climate changemdashis particularly important

Field research in the Tonle Sap area

This article builds on the eld research that looked at thelivelihood resilience and climate change adaptation inthe villages of the Tonle Sap Lake area in Cambodia The

research was conducted in autumn 2008 in two provincesSiem Reap and Pursat with three study villages in eachprovince ( Figure 4 ) The study villages were chosen so thatthey form a crosscut ndash or transect ndash from the lake throughthe oodplains to the national roads based on thetopographic zoning of the area ( Keskinen 2006 )

The crosscut approach was chosen to provide a meansto connect the livelihood analysis to hydrological andenvironmental characteristics as the availability of natural

resources and the peoplersquos connection to the lake and itswaters varies greatly between the villages at different partsof the crosscut ( Keskinen 2006 ) The crosscut also allowedthe comparison of the villages with various livelihood backgrounds while the study villages highest up in theoodplain are mainly agricultural the villages in the middleare involved in both agriculture and shing and the villagesclosest to the lake mainly shing These main sources of

livelihoods are however commonly supported by diversityof secondary livelihoods ( Keskinen 2003 ) Furthermore asthe study villages are located in the same province and evenalong the same road (as was the case in Siem Reapprovince) the crosscut approach highlights the differences between the villages due to their geographical locationand reduces the potential differences caused by otherfactors such as the differences between the provinces intheir institutional and infrastructural settings This kind of stationary approach has also its limitations particularly inthe Tonle Sap area that sees extensive seasonal migration of

both people and the actual villages Many oating villages inthe area follow the changing lake shore migrating severalkilometres a year and many people migrate to the lakeduring the best shing season to sh or work in shprocessing While in some areas these migrants live in akind of symbiosis with local people eg by allowing localpeople to focus on shing by taking responsibility for shprocessing ( Keskinen et al 2002) the seasonal migration isalso creating increasing tensions ( Ratner et al 2007)

Figure 4 | A local villager working in the rice eld outside the agricultural village of Trav Kiet (Photo Paula Nuorteva)




The main method used in the eld research was keyinformant interviews Key informant interviews are

qualitative interviews with people who are particularlyknowledgeable about the theme of the research ( The AccessProject 1999 ) As our research focused on general liveli-hoods in the Tonle Sap villages the key informants includedpersons with a certain positionndashusually a village chiefmdashaswell as ordinary villagers with varying social and livelihood backgrounds

Altogether 19 interviews were conducted with three orfour informants from each study village The rst interviewwas usually conducted with the village chief or deputy chief in order to get a general understanding of the village and

its livelihood patterns The other informants were thenselected so that they represented different genders ages andlivelihood sources with an emphasis on the poorest and themost vulnerable groups 1 The interviews were conducted ina loosely semi-structured manner following certain pre-determined themes while also allowing space for free-owing discussions The informants were encouraged toelaborate on their answers and to explain the reasons andmeanings behind their views

The main issues discussed in the interviews included theinformantsrsquo recollections of past environmental shocks and

stresses such as oods and droughts and the strategies theyhave used for adapting to them Also other sources of challenge were discussed including for example decline inshcatch populationpressure andincrease in the price levelsChanges in the living standards during the past decadesincluding the reasons for these changes were considered aswell Finally the informantsrsquo visions and hopes for the futureand possible strategies to improve their capacities to adaptto potential future challenges were discussed

Thequalitative interview method waschosen as it enablesa relatively large amount of personalreections to be includedin a rather short time period While a selection of threeinformants from each village cannot really be considered torepresent the views of the entire village it does allow theinclusion of various kinds of accounts observation andopinions from different villages and livelihood backgrounds

Besides the actual eld research previous research andliterature regarding the livelihoods in Tonle Sap were

reviewed to get a better understanding of the overallcircumstances in the area and to help to focus the eldresearch This research included the previous researchconducted by the authors (see eg Keskinen et al 20022007 Keskinen 2003 2006 MRCSWUP-FIN 2007 Ratneret al 2007) as well as other studies in the area (eg Bonheur2001 Chea amp McKenney 2003 Evans et al 2004 Marschkeamp Berkes 2006 Resurreccion 2006 Lamberts 2008 ) Themethodology of the eld research and related literaturereview is discussed in more detail in Nuorteva (2009)

RESULTS

Adapting to the environmental challenges

Estimated future climate change impacts in theTonle Sap area

The current climate change model results indicate thatclimate change will impact signicantly on the hydrology of the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake particularly in thelonger term ( Eastham et al 2008 Va stila 2009) While thereare also local climate-related changes expected in the Tonle

Sap area the most radical climate-related impacts in thearea are estimated to occur through regional changes in thehydrology of the entire Mekong River Basin ( TKK amp SEASTART RC 2009 Keskinen et al 2010)

The studies indicate that with the current climatechange scenarios the wet-season water level in the TonleSap Lake is likely to get higher and as a result the seasonallyooded area and the height of the ood peak will increaseIn addition the timing and duration of the ood pulse isestimated to change the ood is likely to start several daysearlier and end a few days later than currently These

changes may lead to more intense ood pulses and areestimated to cause harm for agriculture infrastructure andoodplain vegetation as well as to decrease the fertile landarea The changes may however also result in positiveimpacts by for example boosting the ecosystem productivityand enhancing dry-season water availability ( Va stila et al2010) More information on the estimated impacts of climatechange in the area can be found from TKK amp SEA STARTRC (2009) and Va stila et al (2010)

1 Here the term lsquopoorrsquo does not refer directly to certain economic status of apersonhousehold but it is dened more generally and subjectively to include thosewho have fewer assets and less access to them and whose living standards are thereforelower than on average within the village




The impacts of environmental changes

The impacts of climate change on local livelihoods cannot be isolated from the impacts of other changes in theenvironment due to the strong interconnections regardingtheir causes and effects In this research the possible futurelivelihood impacts of climate change and other environ-mental changes were investigated through the irregularitiesin the Tonle Sap ood pulse and more generally in theenvironment The key informants were asked aboutunusual environmental events in the past most importantlyyears with signicantly higher or lower water levels thannormal as well as their impacts on people and their

livelihoodsWhen discussing the challenges caused by oods it isimportant to note however that ood is not generallyconsidered to be a negative phenomenon in the Tonle Sapalthough the English term often has such a connotation Forthis reason the terms lsquounusual oodrsquo or lsquohigh oodrsquo are usedin this article to indicate a ood with clearly more waterandor higher water level than normally Furthermoredening a lsquousualrsquo or lsquonormalrsquo ood is difcultmdasheven more soin this kind of a participatory research In this study normalwater level was understood as an average year when the

ood regime did not differ remarkably from other yearsOverall the informants were surprisingly consistent indescribing lsquousualrsquomdashand particularly lsquounusualrsquomdashyears andoods For example all of them recognized the year 2000as an unusual year when the water level in the Tonle Sapwas remarkably higher than normal this is in line withother studies ( OrsquoBrien 2001 Keskinen 2003 Ministry of Environment 2005 )

The ndings from the interviews indicate that most of the challenges in the past were related to unusual oods anddroughts and the impacts they had on infrastructure

livelihoods and food security The most signicant impactson infrastructure were related to high oods that had led todestruction of roads and other physical structures as well asooding of the houses High ooding also impactedlivelihoods for example by changing the timing for ricecultivation and making shing more difcult as the shingarea gets larger due to greater ooded area On the otherhand several informants also pointed out that sh wasmore abundant during high oods

Intensive droughts pose another challenge for the rurallivelihoods in the Tonle Sap The problems were usually

related to scarcity of available drinking water and deterio-ration of water quality in rivers and ponds affecting also thevillagersrsquo health status The droughts affected directly thelivelihoods of those agricultural households that rely onirrigation during the dry season and the unusually dryperiods led to a decrease in the amount of sh in the water bodies close to the villages The informants in all studyvillages mentioned serious incidences of drought during thepast decade This nding is consistent with the surveyconducted for the National Adaptation Programme of Action to Climate Change in Cambodia which found that

71 of the informants had noticed an increase in thefrequency of droughts ( Ministry of Environment 2005 )

Other environmental changes and impacts mentionedduring the eld research were related for example todecreasing soil and water quality as well as the declinein the availability of natural resources One signicantchallenge mentioned by several informants was thedecrease in sh catch This seems to be caused by thecombination of several reasons including the use of illegalshing gear destruction of sh habitats due to deforest-ation and growing shing pressure Also reasons related to

sheries management were frequently highlighted in theinterviews including problems with the enforcement of laws and regulations and unequal access to shing areas

Also short-term environmental challenges were men-tioned related particularly to extreme weather eventsHeavy storms accompanied by high waves and strongwinds had destroyed houses boats and crops preventedpeople from practising their livelihoods and had evencaused deaths in one study village Overall the impacts of such extreme weather events were felt most strongly by thepoorest as their houses are generally less solid and

therefore more vulnerable to extreme weather conditionsand they also have fewer assets to respond to the damage

In addition to the direct impacts affecting people andtheir livelihoods environmental changes have indirectimpacts as well Such indirect impacts go easily unnoticedas they are being felt long-term through the complexinteractions between water ecosystem and livelihoods Inthe case of reducing sh catches for example the reductionof sh habitats may be intensied by hydrological changes




in the ood pulse This is so because an increase in dry-season water level due to hydropower development

climate change or other factors would leave large areas of seasonally ooded tall gallery forests and shrubs perma-nently under water leading to their gradual destruction(Kummu amp Sarkkula 2008 ) In addition to shing thiswould also impact other livelihood sources as theselsquoooded forestsrsquo are an important source of non-timberproducts and other wetland resources ( Evans et al 2004)However in the longer term forest destruction couldpotentially be offset by the succession of the gallery forestto the higher areas in the oodplain presuming that suchareas are not already used for example for agriculture

Past adaptation strategies and actions

The ndings related to the coping mechanisms andadaptation strategies regarding unusual environmentalphenomena in the past indicate that a majority of thesestrategies were initiated at the level of individual house-holds and families rather than more formally at villagecommune or district level Most important exceptions wererelated to maintenance and repair of common infrastruc-

ture such as roads At individual household level mostinformants highlighted the importance of different assetsand supplementary livelihood sources as the most import-ant coping mechanisms

The different assets mentioned in the interviewsincluded savings as well as different kinds of physical assetsthat are used to support and broaden the livelihood baseWhile resorting to onersquos own savings was common among better-off villagers the poorer villagers had borrowedmoney or rice from neighbours or relatives as well as frommiddlemen and moneylenders Not all of them however

were willing to take loans even during difcult times as theywere cautious of possible difculties in repaying the loansespecially due to high interest rates Some of the poorinformants also mentioned that they had had to sell theirassets (such as boats and cattle or even land) to be able tosurvive particularly difcult times These kinds of lsquodespera-tion strategiesrsquo ( Marschke amp Berkes 2006 ) provide fastincome in the case of emergency but can have very harmfulimpacts on the long-term adaptive capacity as they reduce

the long-term asset base and therefore the means forsustaining the livelihoods

Additional livelihood sources formed another importantstrategy for coping and adaptation These include relyingmore strongly on secondary livelihood sources not affected by the environmental changes as well as extending toaltogether new livelihoods In agricultural villages shingcan provide additional income in times when agriculture isaffected for example by oods while for instance collectingedible aquatic plants for additional income was consideredimportant in shing villages In addition different forms of short-term paid employment were mentioned in all studyvillages as an important additional livelihood source The

source of employment varies according to the livelihood background and the village location in shing villages theemployment is usually shing-related and includes workingfor large-scale shing operations while in agricultural areasthe work can be for example related to the farming activitiesof more afuent neighbours In some cases the short-termpaid employment also included travelling outside thevillage for example to the near-by factories or migrationfor certain periods to work in the provincial towns Overallthe existing diversity of different livelihood sourceswas considered crucial for the villagersrsquo capacity to respond

to unexpected events and their impactsThe villagers are also actively increasing their adaptive

capacity based on their past experiences Extraordinaryenvironmental phenomena had led to various kinds of responses aiming to increase the villagersrsquo possibilities tocope with similar events in the future thus increasing theirresilience One example of this was the unusually highood of 2000 that had ooded several houses built on stiltsWhile the immediate response to the ood was to transferpeople and goods to other areas or at least to higher partswithin the houses the more long-term response was to

increase the height of the stilts reducing thus possibilitiesfor the ooding of the houses in the future

Variations in impacts and adaptive capacity across theoodplains

The crosscut approach applied in the eld research enabledcomparison of the villages in different parts of the ood-plain in terms of the environmental changes they face as




well as their vulnerability and capacity to adapt to thesechanges The specic impacts of the environmental changes

were closely related to the livelihood strategies and thelocation of the village Although the study villages aresituated geographically relatively close to each other(distance between the villages is only 5ndash 10 kilometresFigure 1 ) the environmental changes turned out to affectthe villages in very different ways

In the case of unusually high oods for instance thedifferences between the villages were clearly visible Inagricultural villages unusually high oods had destroyedrice harvests and caused damage to the stilt houses andother infrastructure Besides changes in the ood patterns

other major environmental challenges in the agriculturalvillages were related to decreasing soil and water qualityaffecting the availability of both water and land foragriculture On the other hand the oating houses in thevillages closest to the lake remained highly unaffected byhigh oods and actually beneted from them in terms of increased sh productivity Heavy storms and related highwaves however affected the oating villages much more Inthe villages closest to the lake the biggest concerns wererelated to decreasing aquatic productivity of the lake andresulting reduction in sh catches

Looking at the ways in which people in Tonle Sap areahave adapted to past changes provides a means to assesstheir vulnerabilities and related adaptive capacity towardsfuture changes The current levels of resilience in the studyvillages were considered in two ways as the adaptivecapacity of the villages in different parts of the oodplainand as the adaptive capacity of the social groups andhouseholds within the villages In both of these casesconsiderable differences between the levels of resiliencewere found

In terms of the resilience of the villages in different parts

of the oodplain the shing villages can be considered tohave generally the lowest level of capacity to cope withunusual environmental changes and particularly theimpacts that such changes are expected to have on shand other water-related resources We found three mainreasons for this the opportunities for diversifying thelivelihood base in the shing villages are rather limitedthe livelihoods are intimately connected with water andenvironment and the shing villages are often both socially

and economically less well off than the agricultural villagesfurther up in the oodplain This conclusion was also

supported by several informants in the shing villageswhomdashdespite a strong interest in livelihood diversicationmdashfelt that they did not have real possibilities for this This wasmainly due to external limitations such as lack of agricul-tural land challenges with sheries management andrelated power inequalities as well as limited access to themarkets due to long distances to provincial towns and poortransport connections On the other hand the oatingvillages are most advanced in adapting to the seasonalvariation of the Tonle Saprsquos waters and they therefore havecertain advantages over agricultural villages This is the case

particularly in terms of adaptation to oods and their directimpacts on physical infrastructure and livelihoods

In addition to the differences in the level of resilience between the study villages internal differences between thehouseholds and social groups within the villages wereobserved Not surprisingly the poorest households turnedout to be the most vulnerable in all study villages Thepoorest households often rely on one livelihood sourceonly (usually shing) while the better-off householdstypically had more possibilities for supplementary liveli-hood strategies The better-off households also had more

savings and other assets while the poorest householdsdepended on external assistance in the cases of emergencyMany of the poorest households also suffer chronicallyfrom rice shortages as well as from other aspectsof poverty such as unclean drinking water healthproblems and lack of secondary education opportunitiesmaking them particularly vulnerable to additional shocksand stresses

The most worrying nding from the eld research wasthat while most of the better-off informants felt that theirliving standards had improved during the past years a

majority of the poor informants noted that their livingstandards have become worse within the same periodThese ndings were consistent throughout the oodplainand are in line with other recent studies ( World Bank 2006 UNDP 2007 ) In the UNDPrsquos Human Development Reporton Cambodia ( UNDP 2007 ) for example it is noted that thedevelopment and economic growth in Cambodia is notspreading evenly across the different social groups but thegap between the poor and rich is widening in many areas




including the Tonle Sap Lake This means that the alreadylow level of resilience of the poorest groups is expected to

worsen making the poor even more vulnerable to futureenvironmental changes and leading ultimately to furtherdeprivation and increasing inequality

DISCUSSION

Ways of increasing adaptive capacity

As an agrarian least developed country with remarkableannual oods and a deep dependence on natural resourcesCambodia and the Tonle Sap area are highly vulnerable to

negative changes in the water environment ( Ministry of Environment 2006 ) This vulnerability is further intensied by the countryrsquos low adaptive capacity to cope withenvironmental shocks and stresses as also pointed out inthe National Adaptation Programme of Action to ClimateChange ( Ministry of Environment 2006 )

Climate change adaptation in Cambodia is thereforecharacterized by an interesting dualism although thepeople are traditionally well adapted to the variablehydrology of the Mekong system the countryrsquos institutionaland political capacity to handle unexpected changes is

limited This institutional weakness connects closely to thepersistent challenges with governance unjust practices arecommon especially in the management of natural resources(Le Billon 2000 Tarr 2003 ) Fisheries management forms aparticularly challenging governance issue as it is dominated by weak implementation of policies corrupt practices andexclusion of the local communities from access ( Bonheur ampLane 2002 Ratner 2006 Tonle Sap Biosphere ReserveSecretariat 2007 )

In the Tonle Sap area people are generally welladapted to the seasonal changes caused by the ood

pulse and both the livelihood sources and the level of livelihood have a strong seasonal nature ( Keskinen 2006 )Our research ndings indicate however that this adaptivecapacity has its limits and the people and their livelihoodsare actually relatively vulnerable to signicant changes intheir environment including the ood pulse systemThe ndings also show that livelihood diversity and anadequate standard of living provide the foundation for thepeoplersquos capacity to adapt to these kinds of unusual

environmental changes The level of livelihood diversityin the Tonle Sap area is already now relatively high as

individual households commonly complement their mainlivelihood source with supplementary livelihoods strategiesHowever strong dependence on just one main livelihoodsource usually either shing or rice cultivation withineach village can be seen to increase the peoplersquos overallvulnerability to sudden environmental changes As noted by Keskinen (2006 475) ldquoIf the primary source of livelihood fails the secondary livelihood sourcesmdashoftenregarded as the safety net of the villagersmdashcannot sustainthe sudden load created when most of the people in thevillage shift simultaneously to these sourcesrdquo

Diversifying the livelihood base both within the house-holds and more generally within the villages provides thusone central way to increasing resilience as has been noted by other studies in Cambodia and elsewhere (see eg Folkeet al 2002 Marschke amp Berkes 2006 Resurreccion et al2008) Several examples given by the informants show thatinitiating supplementary livelihood strategies and engagingin multiple livelihood sources have enabled them toincrease their asset base and overall their standards of living These informants were also more optimistic abouttheir capacity to respond to environmental shocks and

stress and therefore about their possibilities to maintaintheir future living standards

A number of informants had ideas about the specicsupplementary livelihood strategies that they could use to broaden their current livelihood base Most of thesestrategies were related to the informantsrsquo current livelihoodsas well as the other livelihoods practiced in the area In theshing villages next to the lake many hoped to broadentheir livelihoods into sh raising sh processing andutilisation of wetland products while in the agriculturalvillages raising livestock and broadening to other crops

such as vegetables were considered as possible diversica-tion strategies Starting small business such as shop keepingand involvement in different forms of paid labour was alsomentioned by informants in all study villages

One approach to diversifying the livelihood base isthrough migrating which was recognised as a potentialfuture adaptation strategy in all study villages (see alsoRigg 2006) Examples of labour migration both permanentand seasonal were available in all study villages




However given the choice most of the informantsnoted that they would rather stay in their home village

supposing that the circumstances in the village would allowthismdashin other words that their current livelihood strategieswould be able to provide sufcient economic security inthe future

Access to credit was seen as one key factor that enablethe informants to engage in supplementary livelihoodsources as noted by other studies in the area as well(OrsquoBrien 2001 Rahut et al 2007 Meinander 2009 ) As thecredit conditions of private moneylenders and middlemenare often unreasonable and many people avoid resorting tothem the different microcredit schemes and saving groups

initiated for example by non-governmental organisationsrepresent particularly important forms of increasing accessto credit Low-interest microcredit enables people toacquire capital to initiate supplementary livelihood strat-egies (eg sh raising or vegetable farming) as well as forenhancing their current livelihoods (eg purchasing newshing gear or a new rice variety) and it also allows peopleto decide for themselves in which way the additional fundswould be used best

The current dependence especially of poor householdson short-term external assistance to relieve food shortage

during challenging time periods suggests a low level of existing adaptive capacity While providing short-termrelief it is not likely to increase the long-term adaptivecapacity unless other actions are taken in parallel toincrease resilience As long as the existing adaptive capacityis low however this kind of external assistance is animportant additional support mechanism

The importance of livelihood diversity has beenrecognised by other studies focusing on resilience inCambodia as well Marschke amp Berkes (2006) for examplestudied the resilience of two Cambodian shing communes

with one of them being in the Tonle Sap They concludedthat diversication is a commonly used strategy foradaptation and also emphasised the need to analyse theresilience and livelihood dynamics at different scales asincreasing resilience on one level may have opposite effecton Also Meinander (2009) noted in her analysis thatlivelihood development in the Tonle Sap would benetfrom livelihood diversication building on existing liveli-hoods as well as on entirely new alternative livelihoods

To be sustainable the supplementary livelihood strat-egies aiming to diversify the existing livelihood base should

build on existing livelihoods and the specic characteristicsof each village and also consider the initiatives of thevillagers themselves In addition as noted by Folke et al(2002) livelihood diversity is not just an insurance againstuncertainty and surprises but it also provides a mixture of components whose history and accumulated experiencehelp to cope with change and facilitate redevelopment andinnovation Consequently the lessons learnt from unusualevents in the past and the responses to them either by thepeople themselves or someone else in the area can help toguide the livelihood diversication in a direction that

increases the existing levels of resilienceImproved standard of living presents another key for

increasing the existing levels of adaptive capacity This isparticularly important among the poorest groups whoalready have the weakest level of resilience and whoseliving conditions are on many occasions expected todeteriorate further An improved standard of living bringsseveral benets that were also visible in the interviews itenables better housing the acquisition of additional assetsto support and diversify the existing livelihood sources andattainment of savings that can be used during difcult times

It also has more indirect consequences leading for exampleto better health conditions and improved school attendanceof the children All of these factors can be seen to builddirectly or indirectly the householdrsquos resilience to environ-mental shocks and stress

CONCLUSIONS

Adaptation as an integral part of development

The impacts of climate change are likely to bring new kinds

of challenges and opportunities as well as magnify thechallenges that people in developing countries are alreadyfacing The majority of the impacts to the people and theirlivelihoods are mediated through the alterations thatchanging climate causes in hydrological cycle and conse-quently in the spatial and temporal availability of waterThis is likely to be the case also in Cambodiarsquos Tonle Saparea that forms a unique lake-oodplain system withremarkable seasonal changes in its water level and an




exceptional mixture of livelihoods building on sheries andrice cultivation

This article looked at the existing levels of resilience andadaptive capacity of the livelihoods in the Tonle Sap areaand discussed the possibilities of improving them in order toenhance the peoplersquos ability to respond to future environ-mental changes In terms of the current levels of adaptivecapacity it was concluded that despite the long tradition of adapting to the seasonal variations in water and relatedresources the peoplersquos capacity to respond to unusualenvironmental shocks and stress is relatively weak Theadaptive capacity is also spread unevenly both between andwithin the villages making the shing villages closest to the

lake and the poorest groups across the oodplain mostvulnerable to environmental changes This situation seemsto be getting worse the research ndings indicate increas-ing inequality between the poor and the better-off with thepoorest also being the most pessimistic about the possibi-lities of sustaining their livelihoods in the future

These ndings are critically important for the future of the Tonle Sap as the area is likely to see dramatic changesin its seasonal ood pulse system and the natural resourcesit enables Due to the close connection that the Tonle Saplake has with the Mekong River such changes would be

primarily due to the changes in the ows of the MekongRiver caused rst and foremost by hydropower develop-ment as well as land use changes irrigation developmentand later on climate change Together with local develop-ments these regional changes are estimated to have severeimpacts on the lake-oodplain system including potentiallydestructive impacts to the aquatic productivity of the lakeThe combination of negative impacts on sh and otheraquatic resources and weak levels of resilience among theshers and the poor is a very unpleasant scenario andsuggests that particularly these peoplersquos capacity to cope

with the future environmental changes should be improvedrapidly and comprehensively

Improving the adaptive capacity of people and theirlivelihoods is naturally not an easy task Our ndingsindicate however that promising starting points can befound from the local level building on past successes (andfailures) to strengthen and diversify existing livelihoodstrategies in these specic contexts However these kindsof local lsquoautonomousrsquo and largely spontaneous adaptation

strategies are not enough but need to be complementedwith more macro-level long-term policy responses For-

mulating and implementing such policies is the responsibility of the government authorities and they should to beplanned so that they support rather than replace the effortsat more local levels Increasing the coherence between theinitiatives at local provincial and national level is particu-larly important in Cambodia due to the prevalent govern-ance challenges in many sectors including sheries

Indeed although focusing on environmental changesand their impacts the research ndings also illustrate theimportance of broader political contexts in improvingmdashandreducingmdashpeoplersquos resilience While the current insti-

tutional structures have a potential to strengthen theadaptive capacities at both village and household level inmany cases they seem to actually reduce it by maintainingthe existing power imbalances and denying particularly thepoorest and ethnic minorities equal access to commonresources and more generally to the decision-makingprocesses at the village and commune levels The broadersocio-political context related to resource use and liveli-hoods requires therefore much stronger attention whenlooking at the adaptation capacity to climate change andother environmental changes

Overall there is a need to realise the close linkages thatclimate change adaptation has with more general actionsfocusing on poverty reduction and fostering the develop-ment Our research ndings indicate clearly that one of themost efcient strategies for enhancing the peoplersquos adaptivecapacity is to enhance their prerequisites to maintain aproductive livelihood and thus to increase their generalstandards of living Climate change adaptation must thusnot be considered as a new entity that would be replacingprevious concerns but rather as a complementary drivingforce to already existing actions aiming for livelihood

development There is no reason to reinvent the wheel but rather to do the old things better than beforemdashwithincreased momentum and resources provided by theclimate change adaptation actions

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research presented in this article formed a part of theresearch project ldquoWater and Climate Change in the Lower




Mekong Basinrdquo The project was funded by the Ministry forForeign Affairs of Finland with additional funding from

Maa- ja vesitekniikan tuki ry We owe a big thank you to allproject team members particularly Suppakorn ChinvannoDr Anond Snidvongs Dr Matti Kummu and Kaisa Va stila Thank you also to Professor Pertti Vakkilainen andProfessor John Westerholm for their support as well as toour numerous colleagues in Cambodia and the MekongRegion for sharing their opinions and views with us Thankyou also for our two anonymous reviewers whose com-ments improved our manuscript remarkably Finally thankyou very much to our key informants for sharing your timeand ideas and to our Cambodian colleagues Mr Yim Sambo

and Mrs Lun Sereimorokot for their important contributionin the eld research

REFERENCES

Adger W N 2000 Social and ecological resilience are theyrelated Prog Hum Geogr 24 (3) 347ndash 364

Bonheur N 2001 Tonle Sap Ecosystem and Value TechnicalCoordination Unit for Tonle Sap Ministry of EnvironmentPhnom Penh

Bonheur N amp Lane B D 2002 Natural resources management forhuman security in Cambodiarsquos Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve Environ Sci Policy 5 (2002) 33ndash41

Boyd E Osbahr H Ericksen P Tompkins E Lemos M C ampMiller F 2008 Resilience and lsquoclimatizingrsquo developmentexamples and policy implications Development 51 390ndash396

Chea Y amp McKenney B 2003 Fish exports from the Great Lake toThailand An analysis of trade constraints governance andthe climate for growth Working Paper 27 Cambodia Development Resource Institute Phnom Penh Cambodia

Eastham J Mpelasoka F Mainuddin M Ticehurst C Dyce PHodgson G Ali R amp Kirby M 2008 Mekong river basin waterresources assessment Impacts of climate change CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship

Evans P T Marschke M amp Paudyal K 2004 Flood Forests Fishand Fishing VillagesmdashTonle Sap Cambodia A CollaborativeStudy by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Siem Reap and Asia Forest Network

Folke C Carpenter S Elmqvist T Gunderson L Holling C SWalker B Bengtsson J Berkes F Colding J Danell KFalkenmark M Gordon L Kasperson R Kautsky NKinzig A Levin S Ma ler K-G Moberg F Ohlsson LOlsson P Ostrom E Reid W Rockstro m J Savenije Hamp Svedin U 2002 Resilience and sustainable development building adaptive capacity in a world of transformationsScientic background paper on resilience for the process of TheWorld Summit on Sustainable Development on behalf of the

Environmental Advisory Council to the Swedish GovernmentEdita Norstedts Tryckeri AB Stockholm

Gallopin G 2006 Linkages between vulnerability resilience andadaptive capacity Glob Environ Change 16 293ndash303

Holling C S 1973 Resilience and stability of ecological systems Ann Rev Ecol Syst 4 1ndash23

Hultman N amp Bozmoski A 2006 The changing face of normaldisaster risk resilience and natural security in a changingclimate J Int Aff 59 (2) 25ndash41

IPCC 2007 Climate Change 2007mdashImpacts adaptation andvulnerability Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC Cambridge University Press

Janssen M A Schoon M L Ke W amp Bo rner K 2006 Scholarlynetworks on resilience vulnerability and adaptation within thehuman dimensions of global environmental change GlobEnviron Change 16 240ndash252

JICA amp MPWT 1998a Cambodia 1100 000 5835 Chi KraengPrepared by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)and Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) underthe Technical Cooperation Programme of the Government of Japan and the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia

JICA amp MPWT 1998b Cambodia 1100 000 5834 Krakor Prepared by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) andMinistry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) under theTechnical Cooperation Programme of the Government of Japan and the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia

JICA amp MPWT 1998c Cambodia 1100 000 5734 Pousat Prepared by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) andMinistry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) under theTechnical Cooperation Programme of the Government of

Japan and the Government of the Kingdom of CambodiaKeskinen M 2003 Socio-economic Survey of the Tonle Sap Lake

Cambodia Masterrsquos Thesis Water Resources LaboratoryDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering HelsinkiUniversity of Technology Finland

Keskinen M 2006 The lake with oating villages socio-economicanalysis of the Tonle Sap Lake Int J Water Resour Dev 22(3) 463ndash480

Keskinen M Sambo Y amp Pok N 2002 Floating and shing Fieldstudy in Kampong Preah Village Kampong Chhnang WUP-FIN Socio-Economic Studies on Tonle Sap 1 Mekong RiverCommission and Finnish Environment Institute Phnom PenhCambodia

Keskinen M Ka ko nen M Tola P amp Varis O 2007 The TonleSap Lake Cambodia water-related conicts with abundanceof water Econ Peace Secur J 2 (2) 49 ndash59

Keskinen M Chinvanno S Kummu M Nuorteva P SnidvongsA Varis O amp Va stila K 2010 Climate change and waterresources in the Mekong River Basin putting adaptation intothe context J Water Climate Change (in press)

Kummu M 2008 Spatio-temporal Scales of Hydrological impact Assessment in Large River Basins the Mekong Case Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science inTechnology Water amp Development Publications HelsinkiUniversity of Technology Espoo Finland




Kummu M amp Sarkkula J 2008 Impact of the Mekong River owalteration on the Tonle Sap ood pulse Ambio 37 (3)178ndash184

Kummu M Penny D Sarkkula J amp Koponen J 2008 Sedimentcurse or blessing for Tonle Sap Lake Ambio 37 (3) 158ndash163

Lamberts D 2008 Little impact much damage the consequencesof Mekong River ow alterations for the Tonle Sap ecosystemIn Modern Myths of the Mekong A Critical Review of Water and Development Concepts Principles and Policies(eds M Kummu M Keskinen amp O Varis) pp 3ndash18Helsinki University of technology Helsinki Finland

Leary N Adejuwon J Barros V Batima P Biagini B BurtonI Chinvanno S Cruz R Dabi D de Comarmond ADougherty B Dube P Githeko A Hadid A A HellmouthM Kangalawe R Kulkarni J Kumar M Lasco R MatakiM Medany M Mohsen M Nagy G Njie M Nkomo J

Nyong A Osman-Elasha B Sanjak E Seiler R Taylor MTravasso M von Maltitz G Wandiga S amp Webbe M 2008A stitch in time General lessons from specic cases In LearyN Adejuwon J Barros V Burton I Kulkarni J ampLasco R Climate Change and Adaptation EarthscanLondon pp 1ndash27

Le Billon P 2000 The political ecology of transition in Cambodia1989ndash1999 war peace and forest exploitation Dev Change31 (4) 785ndash805

Ludwig F amp Moench M 2009 The impacts of climate change onwater In Climate Change Adaptation in the Water Sector (ed F Ludwig P Kabat H van Schaik amp M van der Valk)pp 35ndash50 Earthscan London UK

Marschke M J amp Berkes F 2006 Exploring strategies that build

livelihood resilience a case from Cambodia Ecol Soc 11 (1) 42Meinander M 2009 Livelihood Sustainability Analysis of

the Floating Villages of the Tonle Sap LakeCambodiamdashPerspectives from Three Case Studies MasterrsquosThesis Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringHelsinki University of Technology Espoo Finland

Ministry of Environment 2005 Vulnerability and adaptation toclimate hazards and to climate change A survey of ruralCambodian households Ministry of Environment PhnomPenh Cambodia

Ministry of Environment 2006 National adaptation programme of action to climate change (NAPA) Ministry of EnvironmentPhnom Penh Cambodia

MRCSWUP-FIN 2007 Final ReportmdashPart 2 Research ndings andrecommendations WUP-FIN Phase 2mdashHydrologicalEnvironmental and Socio-Economic Modelling Tools for theLower Mekong Basin Impact Assessment Mekong River Commission and Finnish Environment Institute ConsultancyConsortium Vientiane Lao PDR

Nuorteva P 2009 Resilience and Adaptation Strategies of RuralLivelihoods in Tonle Sap area Cambodia Masterrsquos ThesisDepartment of Geography University of Helsinki

OrsquoBrien N 2001 Risk mitigation and disaster management amongrural communities in Cambodia CARE International inCambodia with DIPECHO

Pachauri R K 2008 Foreword In Climate Change and Adaptation(ed N Leary J Adejuwon V Barros I Burton J Kulkarniamp R Lasco) Earthscan London

Rahut D B Hap N amp Ratner B D 2007 Enabling alternativelivelihoods for aquatic resource dependent communities of theTonle Sap Technical Assistance to the Kingdom of Cambodiafor the Study of the Inuence of Built Structures on theFisheries of the Tonle Sap Asian Development BankPhnom Penh

Ratner B D 2006 Community management by decree Lessonsfrom Cambodiarsquos sheries reform Policy review Soc Nat Res19 79ndash 86

Ratner B D Ka ko nen M Rahut D B Keskinen M Navy HSambo Y Leakhena S amp Chuenpagdee R 2007 Inuence of built structures on local livelihoodsmdashcase studies of roadsirrigation and shing lots Study of the Inuence of Built

Structures on the Fisheries of the Tonle Sap CambodianNational Mekong Committee and the WorldFish CenterPhnom Penh Cambodia

Resurreccion B P 2006 Rules roles and rights gender participationand community sheries management in Cambodiarsquos Tonle SapRegion Int J Water Res Dev 22 (3) 433ndash447

Resurreccion B P Sajor E E amp Fajber E 2008 Climateadaptation in Asia Knowledge gaps and research issues inSouth East Asia Full report of the South East Asia TeamClimate Change Adaptation ISET-International and ISET- Nepal Kathmandu Nepal

Rigg J 2006 Land farming livelihoods and poverty rethinkingthe links in the Rural South World Develop 34 (1)180ndash202

Smit B Pilifosova O Burton B Challenger I Huq S Klein Ramp Yohe G 2001 Adaptation to climate change in the contextof sustainable development and equity In Climate Change 2001 Impacts Adaptation and Vulnerability (ed J McCarthyO Canziani N Leary D Dokken amp K White)Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change CambridgeUniversity Press Cambridge

Tarr C M 2003 Fishing lots and people in Cambodia In SocialChallenges for the Mekong Region (ed M Kaosa-ard amp J Dore) White Lotus Bangkok

The Access Project 1999 Getting the lay of the land on health A guide for using interviews to gather information (key informantinterviews) The Access Project Boston USA

TKK amp SEA START RC 2009 Water and climate change in theLower Mekong Basin Diagnosis and recommendations for adaptation Water and Development Research GroupHelsinki University of Technology (TKK) Finland ampSoutheast Asia Regional Center (SEA START RC)Chulalongkorn University Thailand

Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve Secretariat 2007 Policy and strategy for The Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve Revised VersionmdashJanuary 2007 Component One ADB Loan No 1939-CAM (SF)Tonle Sap Environmental Management Project CambodiaNational Mekong Committee Tonle Sap Biosphere ReserveSecretariat




UNDP 2006 Human Development Report 2006mdashBeyond scarcity Power poverty and the global water crisis The United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) New York USA

UNDP 2007 Cambodia Human Development Report 2007 Ministryof Planning and United Nations Development ProgrammeCambodia

Va stila K 2009 Climate Change Impacts on Floods in the Lower Mekong oodplains Modelling Approach for Tonle Sap Lake Thesis for Master of Science in Technology HelsinkiUniversity of Technology Finland

Va stila K Kummu M Sangmanee C amp Chinvanno S 2010Modelling climate change impacts on the ood pulse in the LowerMekong oodplains J Water Climate Change 1(1) 67ndash86

Walker B Carpenter S Anderies J Abel N Cumming G Janssen M Lebel L Norberg J Peterson G D ampPritchard R 2002 Resilience management in social-ecologicalsystems a working hypothesis for a participatory approachConserv Ecol 6 (1) 14

World Bank 2006 CambodiamdashHalving Poverty by 2015Poverty Assessment 2006 Report No 35213-KHThe World Bank Group

World Resources Institute in collaboration with United NationsDevelopment Programme United Nations EnvironmentProgramme and World Bank 2008 World resources 2008Roots of resiliencemdashgrowing the wealth of the poor WorldResources Institute Washington DC USA

First received 15 July 2009 accepted in revised form 16 November 2009




on climate-sensitive natural resources and the impacts of climate change are estimated to be particularly remarkable

in developing countries ( IPCC 2007 Leary et al 2008)Consequently an increasing amount of resources in bothrural and urban areas is allocated for enhancing the

capacity to respond to the estimated impacts of climatechange Most such impacts are closely related to the

hydrological cycle including oods droughts and storms(UNDP 2006 Ludwig amp Moench 2009 ) While creating alsonew kinds of challenges climate change impacts are likely

Battambang

Sisophon

Kampong Thom

Siem Reap

Pursat

Tonle SapLake

Kampong Chhnang

A

A

B

B

T o n l e S a p

M e k o n gR

i v e rR i v e r

0 75 km

Ta Chraenieng

Preaek Sramaoch

Trav Kiet

DAM DAEK

TonleSap Lake

N

0 4 km

Preaek

Pring Khpos

Prek Ta Kong

During wetseason

During dry season

PURSAT

P u rsa t R i v e r

Tonle Sap Lake0 4 km

National road

Road

Study village

Residential areaPermanent water areaSeasonally flooded area

GrasslandFlooded forest

Provincial capital

National capital

Figure 1 | Map of Tonle Sap area (upper) and the location of the study villages in Pursat (lower left A) and Siem Reap (lower right B) provinces indicating the two crosscuts acrossthe oodplain (Modied from Kummu et al 2008 JICA amp MPWT 1998 a b c )

























METHODS







































RESULTS

































































DISCUSSION































CONCLUSIONS




















ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








REFERENCES



























































































METHODS







































RESULTS

































































DISCUSSION































CONCLUSIONS




















ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








REFERENCES












































































METHODS







































RESULTS

































































DISCUSSION































CONCLUSIONS




















ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








REFERENCES
































































































RESULTS

































































DISCUSSION































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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








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RESULTS

































































DISCUSSION































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DISCUSSION































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DISCUSSION































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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








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DISCUSSION































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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








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DISCUSSION































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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS








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Documents

Water, livelihoods and climate change adaptation in the Tonle Sap Lake area, Cambodia: learning from the past to understand the future