Climate adaptive river basins in Sayaboury

This GEF Least-Developed Country Fund project targets six highly vulnerable districts in the Nam-Poui, Nam-Poun, Nam-Lay, and Nam-Houng basins in Lao PDR. This area was selected due to high vulnerability based on climate hazards, and limited access to resources and opportunities for climate change adaptation. Communities here are experiencing reduced crop yields and increased poverty due to floods, droughts, seasonal onset changes and uneven access to freshwater; a situation further exacerbated by deteriorating ecosystem services. Protecting highly vulnerable subsistence and shifting agriculture from climate-induced hazards, that are expected to worsen under future climate projections, is vital for sustaining rural agricultural livelihoods and poverty alleviation, especially among marginalized groups and smallholder farmers.

The objective of the 6-year project is to enhance adaptation capacity of agriculture-dependent communities to floods, droughts, seasonal variations and uneven access to freshwater in key river basins in Sayaboury province. This will be achieved by (i) mainstreaming climate change adaptation measures into provincial integrated water resource management (IWRM) and provincial river basin management plans (RBMP), including relevant strategies, policies, and local planning frameworks; (ii) implementing community-driven, co-designed and co-implemented IWRM and RBMP to address impacts of floods, droughts, seasonal variations and decreased access to freshwater on crops; (iii) catalyzing communities’ resilience through climate-smart agriculture and by diversifying livelihood options that prioritize women identified as a particularly vulnerable group considering their high reliance on agriculture as a main source of livelihood; and (iv) widely consolidating and disseminating lessons, experiences, and information from the project’s implementation through knowledge management and communication.