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March 2012

IAIA’s 2012 Corporate Initiative Award. ICEM has been selected as a recipient of International Association for Impact Assessment’s (IAIA) 2012 Corporate Initiative Award for its Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) work. The Committee selected ICEM for this honour specifically for its work on the SEA of twelve planned hydropower dams along the mainstream of the Mekong River and the SEA’s impact on the decision‐making process. The IAIA award for a corporate initiative is a global award presented to a private or public sector company for a specific activity or project that has made a notable contribution toresponsible development practice throughtheapplication of impact assessment. The award will be presented at IAIA’s annual conference event in Porto, Portugal (IAIA12 – Energy Future: The Role of Impact Assessment, 27 May – 1 June2012).

Ensuring Sustainability of Greater Mekong Subregion Regional Power Development. Following the success of ICEM’s SEA on the Mekong Mainstream, ICEM has been commissioned by the Asian Development Bank to complete a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to assess the GMS Power Transmission Master Plan and alternative GMS energy futures and their effects. The SEA will guide future energy policy options and propose ways of improving the environmental and social sustainability of the GMS power plan. The SEA also provides guidance for more specific assessments at the national, sub-national and project level and throughout the process builds the capacity of GMS Energy Planning Agencies and Utilities to undertake SEAs. The project will be run over 15 months and commence with an inception workshop to be held in Hanoi from March 14 – 18.

Support for the National Target Program on Climate Change – Vietnam. ICEM in partnership with NIRAS has been contracted by the Asian Development Bank to provide Support for the National Target Program (NTP) on Climate Change with a Focus on Energy and Transport in Vietnam. It is a two year project that commenced in February 2012 with inception workshops held in Hanoi. The project is one of the first projects in South East Asia of its scale to integrate mitigation and adaptation planning. The project aims to contribute to the effective implementation of detailed NTPCC Action Plans by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Transport, Thanh Hoa Province, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang City to reduce the growth rate of GHG emissions from energy and transport sectors by 2020 and reduce infrastructure and productivity losses in the urban sector. The project will also aim to increase the capacity of the target ministries, province, and cities to design and implement climate change adaptation and mitigation response measures.

Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC). ICEM will work with DAI and SEA START to undertake a climate change impact and adaptation study as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded ARCC project. The project will identify the environmental, economic, and social effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin; and assist highly exposed and vulnerable rural populations in ecologically sensitive areas to increase their ability to cope with climate change impacts on the water resources, agricultural systems, biodiversity, ecosystems, and livelihood opportunities upon which they depend to sustain them. ICEM will be responsible for conducting the study to assess the vulnerabilities to climate change of agricultural cropping regimes, livestock and animal husbandry systems, fisheries and aquaculture, and ecosystems and biodiversity at a basin-wide scale; identify adaptation options for the most vulnerable agro-ecological zones; and draw conclusions to inform pilot site selection and adaptation strategies. The study will result in a “map” of the basin showing potential climate change impacts on key agricultural, aquatic, and other natural systems under various development scenarios and their implications for ecosystem integrity, livelihoods, and development. It will also produce a data set that will be shared through the Regional Knowledge Platform created for the project.

Basin-Wide Climate Change Impact and Vulnerability Assessment for Wetlands of the Lower Mekong Basin Wetlands. The final regional workshop for the Mekong River Commission Wetlands and Climate Change Project was held in Phnom Penh from the 2-3rd of February 2012. ICEM with its partners IUCN, World Fish and SEASTART brought together wetlands and climate change experts to develop regional climate change adaptation options for the Lower Mekong Basin Wetlands. During the workshop, the ICEM team presented the findings of the climate change vulnerability assessment of wetlands in the Lower Mekong Basin; discussed adaptation options for better management of wetlands in the face of climate change; and developed a road map and recommendations for implementing wetland climate change adaptation. The findings of the workshop will be integrated into the final impact and vulnerability report and project synthesis report that will be completed at the end of March 2012. To read more about the workshop or download any of the presentations given, please click here.

Strengthening the Capacity of Pacific Countries to Respond to Climate Change. The Pacific climate change adaptation project is now in its final stage as the governments review the final reports produced for each of the five countries – Palau, Marshall Islands, Timor L’este, Fiji and Solomon Islands. Five national reports and one regional report were produced that set out the methodology and define adaptation priorities for each of the countries. Each of the countries identified key geographic areas of strategic national importance and sectors that formed the basis of climate change impact and vulnerability assessments that led to the development of pilot adaptation projects. The reports will be finalised and made available in the coming months.

Basin Development Challenge Projects in the Mekong Basin. As part of Project 3, ICEM has been looking at multiple use strategies for water in reservoirs for other uses such as local irrigation, recession agriculture, fisheries, water supply and tourism that can have important values for local communities and local economic development. ICEM has looked at cropping patterns and modelled the potential use of reservoir waters for use in irrigation across landscapes and agricultural land along the Sesan River in Vietnam and Cambodia. Our experts have found that only a very small area of agricultural land would benefit from gravity fed water for irrigation. The possibilities for pumped water use and terracing has not yet been assessed, much greater potential exists. Initial findings were presented in Johannesburg at the 3rd International Forum on Water and Food late last year. ICEM’s conference poster "Scoping for sustainable multiple use of water in cascades of hydropower schemes in the Sesan River Basin" that was developed with the Challenge 3 project partners is available on our publications page, or by clicking here. The results will be made available in a report to be completed in May.

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