Environmental policy and administrative management

Xuan Quang 2 Commune of Dong Xuan District, Phu Yen Province is a commune to the northwest of Phu Yen Province. The commune is at 13o14 to 13o16 N and 108o43 to 109o12 W. Total natural area is 5082.9 hectares, in which agricultural land accounts for 4622 hectares. There are 1110 households with 4274 residents in the commune. Poor households account for 33.5% (at the end of 2009). Agriculture is the main economic activity and source of income of the community Agricultural production in the commune is getting more risky due to the negative impacts of climate change like floods and droughts. Some villages are at Ky Lo Riverside, therefore have low and hollow terrain and are prone to floods during storms and heavy rains.... Also, important plants of the commune and district like sugar canes and corns are grown at the riverside. This makes agricultural production at the region unsustainable and seriously affects local people s livelihood. Moreover, current cultivation methods at hilly area have exhausted the soil and bring about erosion. Unsustainable plant structures and the absence of suitable cultivation method lead to desertification and land degradation. The arising problem is the need of plants changing to adapt to droughts, suitable cultivation periods to avoid storms and floods, moving plants grown on both flooded normal land and hills with suitable and sustainable intensive farming techniques and structures Given the aforementioned problems, the project generally aims at partly reducing the vulnerability and increase the adaptability to flooding of the agricultural production in case of more frequent and intense flooding due to climate change at the riverside of Ky Lo River, Xuan Quang 2 Commune, Dong Xuan District, Phu Yen Province. The project s approach is creating the adaptive capacity of the local community to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and increasing frequency of floods in riverside due to constant heavy rains, storms and flashfloods through (i)improving the community s understanding and awareness of the importance and the capability to adapt to climate change, (ii) experimenting and demonstrating the cultivating methods on the basis of combining technological advances and community s traditional experience to protect and sustainably use land and water, reduce negative impacts of storms, floods and droughts on agriculture production and farmers livelihood.

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