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RELATIVE ROLES OF CLIMATE AND SOCIETAL FACTORS INWATER SCARCITY AND FLOODINGIN SRI LANKA AND MALDIVESAND ITS IMPLICATIONS
Zeenas Yahiya
Foundation for Environment, Climate and Technology, c/o Mahaweli Authority Maintenance, Digana Village, Rajawella, Sri Lanka.
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ABSTRACT
Three cases that we have studies in Sri Lanka and Maldives illustrate the socio-economic factors and the role of climate change in water scarcity and flooding. The trade-offs, spatial and time scale issues and climate risk and sustainability shall be discussed. First, at a national and district scale in Sri Lanka, we find that there is a strong relationship between climate based drought incidences and drought disaster declarations and relief payments. The details of how these indices are derived and the cross-comparisons with disasters shall be presented. This case demonstrates that even in a country with political conflict, and with government systems under stress that climate drives drought disaster relief. Second, in a rapidly urbanizing region in Sri Lanka, we find that climate is not a driver of the rise in flooding in a sub-catchment (PingaOya) of the Mahaweli River. While there is a relationship between weather and flooding, the rising frequency of floods is not correlated with climate change. Rather anthropogenic activities and poor enforcement of regulations is the cause of floods. Third, in the Maldives, the new government is seeking to move away from climate dependence by encouraging its people to move from water sustenance through encouraging the young to migrate from the approximately 190 islands they inhabitto the HulhumaleIsland where it is constructing desalination plants to provide water. This means that there is higher level of dependence on water supply services. In November 2014 there was a week-long breakdown of the water supply.
PROFIT, PEOPLE AND PLANET: GREENING SCHOOL CURRICULUM THROUGH RECONTEXTUALIZING AGRICULTURE VALUES AND PRACTICES INTO EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sang Putu Kaler Surata
Dept. of Biology Education, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training
Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar-Bali
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ABSTRACT
For more than a millenium, agricultural landscape system has played an important role in educating and training young generation about green development; however the role of this system is reduced drastically due of globalization school education curricula, that tend ignoring the student opportunities to learn from the local environment as well as their ancestral heritage. This paper seek to initiate discussion of education reform in addressing global challenges for future development. Ethnography approach was used to explore three programs of re-contextualization of agricultural values and practices into education for sustainable development (ESD). It was found that greening school curriculum with locally relevant and culturally appropriate may contribute to achieve three pillars of ESD: profit, people and planet. There thus, education reform should be focused on place-based ESD to encourage youth for using their local cultures and practices as source of inspiration and motivation in building the future.
Keywords: local environment, education reform, global challenges and building the future.
RESILIENT FLOOD-BASED FARMING SYSTEMS IN THE MEKONG DELTA
Nguyen Van Kien
Director of Research Centre for Rural Development of An Giang University, Vietnam
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ABSTRACT
This paper investigate resiliency of the floating rice-based farming system overtime. Resilience is defined as “the capacity of a system” to cope with disturbance, learn from changes and creativity. This paper will explore the link between social-ecological resilience in the context of preservation and development of the floating rice based farming systems in the Mekong Delta. In particular, this floating rice farming system can adapt well to seasonal flood event, recover inland fish, maintain the nutritional sources for small farm holders, and does not require modification of natural resources such as infrastructure (dikes), and recycling of natural resources, and make use of full ecosystem services from the seasonal flood events in the Mekong Delta. Early pioneers during the Nguyen Dynasty (1705), traditional people harvested floating rice in the lowland back swamps, caught fish in the floodplains and hunt wild animals for home consumption. During the colonial period (1858-1954) the floating rice was expanded in the flooded areas of Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Since short-term high yield rice varieties were introduced into the Mekong Delta in the late 1960s, it quickly replaced floating rice-based agro-ecological systems by using massive irrigation and systems of protective polders. In 1974, there were 0.5 million hectares of the floating rice in the VMD, but by 2012, this dropped to 50 hectares (ha), found in Vinh Phuoc and Luong An Tra communes of Tri Ton district in An Giang province. Research Center for Rural Development of An Giang University has carried out a series of research and development projects to co-design with community and rural leaders to recover this farming system since 2013. The research shows higher economic return, protects biodiversity, and recovers inland fishery for food security. In contrast, intensive rice farming systems show fewer resiliencies because they create environmental costs.
Key words: Floating rice, flood, Mekong delta, social-ecological resilience
CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND CHANGE IN THE TROPICAL INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS :IMPLICATIONS FOR WATER SECURITY AND GREEN DEVELOPMENT
Lareef Zubair
Foundation for Environment, Climate and Technology, c/o Mahaweli Authority Maintenance, Digana Village, Rajawella, Sri Lanka.
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ABSTRACT
Climate variability and change are of profound importance across the Indian Ocean but it has not been studied as much as in other regions;nor has the information been adequately harnessed to support green or sustainable development for its island inhabitants. Through our PEER projects, we have worked towards understanding climate variability from intra-seasonal to decadal time scales for the tropical Indian Ocean. Though studying phenomenon such as the Madden Julian Oscillation we are able to operationalize intra-seasonal climate predictions for Sri Lanka and Maldives. Through studying phenomenon such as El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole, we developed seasonal climate predictions. Through study of climate change projections and decadal variability, our ongoingPEER project shall characterize near-term climate change projections. We also developed tools for monitoring ongoing climate variability. All of this information is provided at a weekly, monthly and seasonal interval to users in the water resources, agriculture, disaster risk and infectious disease sectors in Sri Lanka, Maldives and recently to Comoros. In addition, through other projects, our climate work extends across the Indian Ocean from the littoral islands of East Africa and South-East Asia. We address the use of climate information towards sustainable development in sectors such as Fisheries, Tea and Coconut plantations, Malaria and Dengue risk, Human-Elephant-Conflict, and preserving lagoon ecosystems and fresh water resources.