Over the past 30 years, disasters - storms, floods and droughts - have increased threefold, according to the UN’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. When extreme weather strikes, the poor are usually hit hardest. Tropical storms, floods and droughts account for 75 percent of all disasters. Disaster relief agencies try to pick up the pieces. But increasingly, governments and UN agencies are going one step further, aiming to reduce damage before it strikes. Earth Report investigates how poor farmers in Honduras and fishing communities in Vietnam are working with disaster risk managers to strengthen nature’s defences against the violent effects of climate change.

Fisherman in north-east Vietnam

Between 1995 and 2004, disasters claimed almost 6,000 lives in Vietnam. Over 320,000 houses were destroyed, costing the country’s overstretched economy an estimated US$2.5 billion. Relief agencies dealt with the aftermath. In 1994 Vietnam’s Red Cross, decided to try a new approach – preventing or at least reducing disaster - before it happens. ‘The Coastal Environmental Preservation Programme’ involves local communities in planting mangrove forests along the shoreline. Dang Van Tao has been involved in the project from the very start.

Dang Van Tao, Vietnam Red Cross: The mangrove project done by Viet Nam Red Cross, brings to it, is the agreement to protects the sea dike system where the dike and the people are at risk and its active involvement of the local people, and the community from the planning to the implementation, and the monitoring and protection of the mangroves.

Two-thirds of Vietnam’s population earn their living from agriculture. Villagers helped plant the mangroves, supporting the project from the very outset. Mangrove trees were planted along the coast to protect vulnerable communities as well as their dikes, shrimp farms and rice fields. Over 100 kilometres of coastline have been planted with the trees Since 1994. The Red Cross estimates that it has helped reduce the cost of dike maintenance by $7.3m per year. Today the planting extends over a kilometre into the sea. The mangroves act like a giant breakwater. - Storm waves are reduced to harmless ripples by the time they reach the coastal sea dikes. This is Tan Thanh commune, 100 kilometres from Hanoi city in the north of the country. It is home to around 4,000 people. Here the dike protects the industry that is the backbone of this community – shrimp farming.

Do Thi Hang, Shrimp Farmer: The mangroves play an important part in our lives. They stop heavy waves from causing damage and protect the dike. They also ensure the ecosystem is balanced. The shrimp and fish under the water bring many benefits to the people here.

The Tan Thanh People’s Committee acts as the commune’s meeting point. Hang now sings at classes like these throughout the region, reminding farmers of the importance of preserving the mangroves. Amidst the roots of the mangroves shrimp, crab and fish thrive, attracting the attentions of local fishermen. Though the pickings are easy in the mud at low tide, tree roots can be easily damaged. At high tide these roots become invisible. But fishermen persist. Guards based out at sea monitor the activities of these fishermen. Bui Van Sun is one of these.

Bui Van Sun keeps watch over the mangrove trees

Nguyen Van Thoq, Fisherman: Because of the mangroves the number of fish and other species here has gone up a lot. Mangroves are very helpful to our lives, they are important to all of us.

Though Tan Thanh is now protected by 3 kilometres of mangroves, 2 kilometres of nearby coastline remains unprotected. Here, diggers are busy rebuilding the dike after damage caused by a recent storm. Adverse conditions in this section of coastline have meant repeated attempts to plant mangroves have failed. Farms here are at risk.

Hoang Van Thuy, Red Cross Vietnam :: The land here is very sandy. When we try and plant the mangroves here using the tried and tested methods the trees simply do not survive. They are dragged away by the waves, it is very hard to plant here. So we need to find and develop new ways of planting the trees so that they can survive on coastlines like this where the waves can be very strong, maybe by growing the trees elsewhere first.

A further 2,900 km of coastline in Vietnam remains unprotected. With funding for the project ending in 2010 financing for the continuation and expansion of the mangroves will need to be found elsewhere. Pham Duc Tuan is the Deputy Director of the Forestry Department.

Pham Duc Tuan, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: We would welcome the Red Cross to continue this project. But if the Red Cross does not continue after 2010 then we will do all we can to find a way of ensuring it is continued. As well as government budgets we will search for investment and funding elsewhere, including from business and private sector enterprises.

It’s estimated the project has cut the cost of dike maintenance by $7.3 million dollars a year. To date around, 20,000 hectares of forest have been planted. This represents up to 8% of the total national target of 250,000 hectares in the entire country –there’s much more to be done. So what of the future? With climate change now recognized as a problem it is widely accepted that extreme weather will become more frequent and more severe in years to come.

Koos Neefjes, UNDP Vietnam: With increased awareness of the fact that climate change will just simply increase the risk of a typhoon or storm surge or another risk to increase, the conclusion is very obvious and that is that more investment is needed in more mangrove planting but also stronger dikes.

From sea to land. In a moment we will see how farmers in Honduras are protecting against disasters.

PART TWO In Part 1 we saw how fishing communities in Vietnam have learned to protect against disasters. In this half, we travel to Honduras.

For today’s young inhabitants in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, there are no memories of the devastation left by Hurricane Mitch nearly a decade ago. As people continue with daily life, subtle remnants of the city’s painful past remain, etched on riverside homes. When hurricane Mitch ripped its way through Central America in 1998, Honduras was hit hardest. 18,000 people died, more than 3 million were left homeless and devastating structural and agricultural damage totalled over 6 million dollars. 80% of the country is mountainous.

Honduras’s vulnerability lay in the degraded condition of its hillsides. Too many trees had been felled for firewood. The rain that Mitch brought with it turned the treeless and eroded slopes into lethal mudslides. But there was one part of Honduras, the region of Lempira, that managed to feed not only itself, but the rest of the country during the worst of the storm. Situated in the remote western hills of Honduras bordering with El Salvador, this impoverished area also suffered extensive damage at the hands of Mitch.

Ian Cherrett – Chief Technical Advisor, Lempira Sur: How could this poor, backward area that was known in the National consciousness as receiving food aid provide food aid to those parts of the country which were supposedly the most developed yet were the ones that suffered most in Mitch.

Six years before Hurricane Mitch Ian Cherrett and Luis Alvarez, with the support from the Dutch and Honduran Governments, led the UN’s technical team credited with changing Lempira’s fortunes. Luis Alvarez, couldn’t know at that point that his efforts would pay off so handsomely six years later.

Luis Alvarez shows dry soil in Lempira

Farmers used to burning the land were ruining Lempira’s natural ability to withstand heavy rains and erosion.

Ian Cherrett: Slash and burn agriculture is the agricultural equivalent of a fast food economy because it’s a very easy simple process. You cut down the bush and the trees and you set fire and you plant. Once you’ve had one harvest, two harvests, it’s no use you have to move on, because the soil is no longer fertile. The problem is once the number of people grew and the density of the population grew there was nowhere to move on to.

It left large tracts of hillside bare, and very vulnerable to erosion and landslides. In their quest to stop farmers burning the land the team made a key discovery. Some farmers still used the slash and burn technique but retained an indigenous Lenca Indian tradition of growing their crops interspersed between trees. The shade provided numerous benefits. It pointed the team towards the solution - keeping the soil covered. The technical team collaborated with local farmers to develop an alternative to burning – called zero tillage. This means, leaving the fields covered with the remains of the old harvest. Planting between surviving trees and shrubs curbs soil erosion and landslides and greatly reduces evaporation, keeping the soil moist.

Luis Alvarez: When the soil is covered the heat of the sun’s rays is reflected. Being at a lower temperature means there’s less evaporation, and the soil is kept cooler. The soil here is much more porous given that there are more roots, hence better water infiltration. Here however, where the earth floor is not protected, it’s hard, it’s like stone. You can easily see the difference between the effects of a drop of water falling on here, and on here.

Ian Cherrett talks to farmer Don Nemecio Mejilla

Nemecio Mejilla, Farmer: Before we used to cut up the vegetation and burn it completely. Here in the winter, when the rains would come, they’d hit all the ash, which is what remained, any of the fertilizer in the ash would be washed down the mountain.

That’s what happened to most of the country when Hurricane Mitch hit. The Quesungual farming technique, however, meant that Lempira not only survived the storm, but was able to feed the rest of the country.

Nemecio Mejilla, Farmer: This soil protection is good and it’s very important. We’ve put our hearts into working this way. I haven’t been supported financially by anyone else, no. Nothing but the sweat from my brow has fed my family and given them an education. There’s an improvement, we can see the great change in the way we work. The results are two thousand times better.

Young farmers in Lempira practise improved methods learned from FAO

Don Juan, Farmer: For human beings, for families like ours, maize is key. It’s a vital part of the food chain. The value of maize is that it sustains so many living things. I may not sell it but its worth may come from elsewhere, I can give maize to a cow and I know she’ll give me more milk.

Helping the rest of the country, and essentially saving themselves, has transformed the way farmers now work to preserve their environment.

Luis Alvarez: One of the things that Lempira taught us is that everything we start has to be sustainable. We drew the conclusion that the sustainability we’ve discussed lays with the youth, with children. We have to transmit this to our youth so that from generation to generation the culture of water management and informed attitudes towards no burn, prevails.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, Head of Convention on Biodiversity: The natural habitat can contribute to minimize the impact of natural disasters that would be created by climate change and extreme weather events. So yes, biodiversity can assist and biodiversity should contribute because a healthy ecosystem are important for the health of human beings and is also important for the health of the atmosphere.

Whilst Lempira’s farming culture appears secure, farmers in similar arid regions of Honduras are beginning to adopt the same attitude towards improved and sustainable farming methods. Don Julian now plants maize using the same soil protection techniques on his farm, 140 kilometres from Lempira.

Don Julian Funes Nabas, Farmer: I want to change my life because I have family. Changing people’s mentality is vital, and I believe and trust that this is possible. Firstly I would invite any farmer to come and visit me and see my land. Because from there, I’ll be inviting him to think and I will know that once he’s seen my plot he’ll understand the process and he’ll go back to his farm and know that there’s a difference between his land and mine.

For scientists and farmers alike, Hurricane Mitch confirmed that man must work with nature to strengthen its immune system against the effects of climate change and extreme events.

Luis Alvarez: We believe that our work here has not only improved lifestyles but it has saved lives. It’s hard to learn from others, but when we do learn from others, problems are easily solved because we’re not committing the same mistakes. If we do make mistakes, they’ll be new ones.

END