Annex 9: Project profile: “Responsive assistance on the rehabilitation of natural resources and environmental damages in the affected areas”

1. Background

The devastating Tsunamis caused by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake centred on the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra on 26 December 2004 struck Asian countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, including Thailand. In Thailand, as of 12 January 2005, it is confirmed that 5313 have died (a half of them are foreigners from 36 countries), with a further increase of its toll. The foundation of people’s living was badly devastated in the affected provinces in the south, i.e. Phangna, Trang, Krabi, Phuket, Satun and Ranong.

It is reported that many fishing and farming communities in the areas have been completely destroyed by Tsunamis. In addition to the devastated damages in the fisheries and agriculture sector, the tourism sector has also been severely damaged. As those sectors provide the local communities with the main income sources, the devastating situation has threatened their livelihood directly in the affected coastal areas and indirectly in the surrounding unaffected coastal areas. All of the people making their living in these sectors depend on natural resources, including the attractive and beautiful tropical environment in the south.

The scale of damages and rehabilitation needs for natural resources and environment have not yet been assessed. The impact of damage caused by salinity is also the concern for the longer term rehabilitation in the agricultural sector.

Efforts of the Thai government as well as international community have so far focused on emergency humanitarian relief operations. Damage and needs assessment programmes on natural resources and environment may look different from emergency operations, but they can contribute rebuilding the communities to be a less vulnerable and safer place to live in.

2. Project Description

The project will assess the damages due to Tsunami on various natural resources, including 1) coastal vegetations (mangroves, rear-mangroves, freshwater forests, riparin forests, coconut palm plantations, natural and man-made casuarina stands, etc.) and 2) agricultural land and water resources in six southern provinces. At the same time, the project will assess the mitigation effects of these vegetations by their locations, shapes and sizes of areas, species composition and density, and management, in comparison with artificially constructed objects, e.g. wave blocks.

In the agricultural sector, the main aim will be to rehabilitate the affected lands and to restore progressively the production capability and ensure food security and livelihood of the people. Rehabilitation options will depend mainly on severity and extent of damages (e.g. level of soil salinity due to sea water intrusion, physical and salt toxicity damages to standing crops, etc.), loss of farming capital and human capacity. Therefore, need assessment studies will play a major role in zoning or characterizing the damages, identifying the capacity of farmers and local community to restore the production capability and designing and scheduling appropriate interventions for short, medium and long term considering the local agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions.

The project will also conduct a biodiversity assessment in the inside and outside of marine and terrestrial parks or other types of protected areas in the Tsunami affected areas to obtain scientific information on the Tsunami impact on flora and fauna.

Vulnerability assessment against tsunamis will be investigated along with these mentioned surveys.

To identify the priority assessment areas, remote sensing (RS) and GIS technologies will be fully utilized in combination with the field observations. Selected areas will be surveyed by a group of experts.

The obtained findings are presented to the local communities, provincial government authorities, NGOs, university staff, and journalists for their questions and comments in a series of workshops. Based on the assessment results, a series of technical reports will be issued with recommendations and guidelines for better natural resource management with appropriate land use planning and environmental impact assessment (EIA) in coastal areas.

The project will also conduct environmental awareness and disaster prevention training programmes for the local communities, government officials, NGOs and school teachers by using the project reports or their simplified versions to increase public awareness on the productive and protective functions of natural resources to the fisheries and agriculture sectors. Similar information will be provided to the tourism sector as the attractive features of natural environment are the basic asset for this sector. Environmental education materials will be prepared for school children.

A number of international and national consultants as well as FAO/RAP technical officers specialized in forest ecology, geology, integrated crop, soil and water management, land use planning, remote sensing and GIS, disaster management, environmental education, etc. will visit the project areas, to conduct the project activities.

3. Objectives

a) To provide the provincial government authorities and local communities with the scientific information on the production, protection and other environmental functions and services of natural resources, on the basis of various assessments and analysis of the results.

b) To identify and prioritize the types of rehabilitation/interventions (short, medium and long term) with the main aim of restoration of agricultural production and livelihood of people in the affected regions

c) To provide technical advise, guidance, training and supervision in order to improve natural resource management systems, including an early warning system, RS/GIS, EIA, rehabilitation of damaged natural resources, in close collaboration with concerned government agencies and local authorities.

d) To implement environmental awareness training, education, and disaster vulnerability management programmes.

4. Expected impact

a) Improvement of natural resource management systems for the sustainable natural resources utilization and conservation.

b) Identification of integrated strategies for resumption of agricultural production in the affected regions

c) Improvement of environmental awareness on the functions and services of natural resources.

d) Improvement of disaster prevention and preparedness for the long-term livelihood security and prosperity for the local communities.

e) Enhancement of technical capacities in the local government staff on the application of RD/GIS, EIA, early warning systems, land use planning, environmental education, etc.

f) Promotion of the tourism industry based on environmental conscious tourism.