Gov’t: Global Warming May Ruin Koh Kong

The mangrove swamps of Koh Kong on Cambodia’s southwest coast could be flooded, or even submerged, within 100 years as greenhouse gases warm the planet and cause the world’s seas to rise by up to one meter, according to a government study re­leased Monday.

The Koh Kong coastline would be most hard hit in Cambodia by the effects of climate change because it is a low-laying area, unlike the steep hillsides surrounding other coastal areas such as Kampot or Sihanoukville, the report states.

A one-meter rise in the ocean would flood 4,444 hectares, or about 0.4 percent of Koh Kong, according to the UNDP-funded study, titled “Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment to Cli­mate Change in Cambodia.”

The study is under discussion again today at the second day of a conference on the impact of climate change in Cambodia, hosted by the Ministry of Environ­ment at Hotel Le Royal.

The conference comes a few weeks after the release of a draft version of the national greenhouse gas inventory for 1994 emissions, which showed for the first time the types of greenhouse gases emitted in Cam­bod­ia by cars and motos, livestock and rice harvesting.

Greenhouse gases methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are blamed for rising world temperatures, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a panel of environmental scientists, oceans are likely to rise by 1 meter in the next century as a result.

The floods would wreak havoc on Koh Kong, home to a national maritime sanctuary. The flooded areas would include 279 hectares of the town of Koh Kong, 3,114 hectares of mangrove forests, 10 hectares of beaches and a shrimp farm.

While Cambodia lacks the industrial base to contribute greatly to global warming, the rapid destruction of national forests in the name of timber sales here could hasten climate change, said Tin Ponlok, the national project director for the Ministry of Environment’s Cam­bodia Climate Change En­abling Activity Project.

Still, poor countries such as Cambodia are the least-equipped to deal with the effects of global warming, experts said.

“And the harsh reality is that it is the developing countries, and particularly the poor, who will experience the major brunt of the impact, even though they have been the least responsible [for global warming],” said Dom­inique Ait Ouyahia McAdams, the UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative.