Climate change vulnerability assessment for Beung Kiat Ngong Ramsar Site, Lao PDR

In 2014, IUCN carried out a vulnerability assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Ramsar site at Beung Kiat Ngong in southern Lao PDR. This follows earlier vulnerability assessments that were carried out as part of the MRC‘s study on wetlands and climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin, for which relevant case studies at Xe Champhone, Siphandone and Lower Stung Sen in Cambodia were particularly instructive. In addition, climate change projections for Champasak province that had been prepared for the USAID-funded Mekong ARCC project were directly relevant and used for the downscaled projections at Beung Kiat Ngong. The thematic studies of the Mekong ARCC project on fisheries, agriculture, livestock and NTFPs were also used and the vulnerability assessments for particular agricultural systems, crops and species were tailored to the projected conditions in Beung Kiat Ngong.