The expedition will report to a 233 million strong audience the local efforts already being undertaken to adapt to the changing environment and its potential impacts in Viet Nam, the region and the world at large.
VietNamNet Bridge – A group of journalists from BBC World Service, an international multimedia broadcaster, and their local counterparts began yesterday, December 7, a four-day expedition on boat to explore the effects of climate change on life in Viet Nam’s Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
The Mekong Eyes boat will stop in the cities of My Tho and Can Tho and other places in the Delta. From there the team will make trips to the Thoi Son islet, visit a floating market, and study a uniquely Vietnamese agricultural model (VAC farm).
"This is the most ambitious project the BBC has undertaken in Viet Nam. The security of this fragile ecosystem, the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, is vital to millions of people," said James Sales, the project manager.
The overarching theme of the BBC coverage is the relation between climate change on the one hand and regional and global food and water security on the other. The journalists will investigate how the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, dubbed the rice basket of Asia, is coping with rising sea levels and increased water salinity.
Several on-boat presentations about climate change will be made by local and international experts during the expedition. Discussions will cover existing methods of dealing with flooding including the planting of mangroves and cultivation of saline-tolerant varieties of rice and fruits.
The trip is part of the BBC’s visit to eight areas of the world to find how people are preparing for climate change, which is already affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people living in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
To be broadcast on BBC World News, the latest Earth Report programme, ‘Heads Above Water’, looks at how the Vietnamese government is fighting back.
Over the last quarter of the 20th century, large areas of coastal mangroves have been cleared for commercial shrimp farms. Now those shrimp farms themselves are under threat from climate-related flooding, a recent BBC News report said, explaining the rationale for the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta expedition.
VietNamNet/Viet Nam News
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