(10 March 2014, Washington, DC): The Adaptation Fund is financing climate change resilience and adaptation for farmers and livestock producers in Myanmar’s “dry zone,” one of the most climate sensitive and natural resource-poor regions in the country.

In this region, projected climate change effects include increasing temperatures, more unpredictable rainfall patterns, decreasing capacity of soil to retain moisture, declining water availability, and intensifying weather events such as cyclones and flash floods. Importantly, droughts and dry cycles have been correlated to poverty in this region.

“The Adaptation Fund is pleased to fund such a critical project,” remarked Hans Olav Ibrekk (Norway), Chair of the Adaptation Fund Board. “Our mission is to help the most vulnerable communities adapt to changes in climate, and these activities focus on more than fifty-thousand households that are particularly at risk from climate impacts.”

Contributions from Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and the Brussels Capital Region made funding this work possible.

The Adaptation Fund is financing US $7.9 million of this four-year initiative, with co-financing from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) {US$ 624,998} and the Government of Myanmar {US$554,181}. Some examples of the project activities are: establishing freshwater capture and storage capacities in 280 villages to ensure fresh water supplies; rehabilitating and protecting 4,200 ha of micro-watersheds to increase water retention and reduce erosion; diversifying livestock production systems to buffer the effects of drought on local populations; and development of climate hazard maps to assist in community risk management and preparedness planning.

Including this new round of financing, the Adaptation Fund has committed a total of US$ 226 million for 34 projects in 33 countries since 2010.

This project is one of eight projects and programmes that were previously approved for funding by the Adaptation Fund Board, but were placed on ‘hold’ due to a cap on the Fund’s financing of activities by multilateral organizations (http://bit.ly/af_pipeline). Four proposed initiatives remain in this pipeline.

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The Adaptation Fund finances projects and programmes that help vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to the negative effects of climate change. Initiatives are based on the country needs, views and priorities. The Adaptation Fund was established under the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and has committed US$ 226 million since 2010 to help vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to climate change. The Fund is financed in part by government and private donors, and also from a two per cent share of proceeds of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) issued under the Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism projects. For more information on the Adaptation Fund, see our publications here: http://issuu.com/adaptationfund

Media contact: Cathryn Poff, Communications, Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat, cpoff@adaptation-fund.org or +1.202.747.4786