A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 10 February 2010

Dolphins, honey and climate change: visiting a Cambodian village

By Lucy Aitken-Read
Ethiopian Review
February 9th, 2010

A fat mango dropped out of the tree, centimeters away from my colleague’s head. We were about to commence a meeting with the eighth village here on our tour of Cambodia. As people began arriving my mind skipped back over the experience so far; we had only been here ten days but it easily felt like a month. In everyvillage we had been greeted with huge genorosity, a fresh coconut to drink from and crowds of broad smiling faces. We had heard about honey, bamboo and resin processing businesses that were providing a diverse and sustainable form of employment for villagers. We had stayed over night on an eco tourism island that Oxfam supports- delicious food, a refreshing swim and a viewing of the rare Irrawaddy river dolphins had convinced us that this was a worthwhile initiative! We were intrigued by how thisvillage had made conservation and environmental education were key components of this island life.

We had watched villagers gracefully slide up and down palms trees at one village, harvesting palm syrup. This village had had its main source of income, rice farming, swept away (along with everything else) in last season’s monsoon, Ketsana. Oxfam was helping them double the income from their secondary source, palm sugar, by providing grants and training to turn it from soft form to granules. The vice -president of this sugar group described how the annual flooding often caused stress for those in thevillage but the last flood was the worst they have seen. It took everything away with it and they worry this will become the norm. On one hand villagers who rely on palms rather than rice farming are better off as the palms will never be carried away in the current. On the other hand , she explained, they have no doubt that each year it is getting hotter and hotter, making it increasingly hard to harvest the syrup from the palms.

We had heard from a women -only fishing collective who, with money from an Oxfam grant, managed to purchase a store to sell their fish products. These women were feisty and full of passion as they told us about their meetings with the local authority, how they outline their needs and feel confident they are listened, and responded, to.

The last few villages were those which have been perhaps most impacted by the Ketsana disaster last year. Villagers here were tangibly more poor but determined to make the most of the support of Oxfam and the local partner organization. Villagers spoke animatedly about how cash grants had helped them meet their basic needs in the aftermath, as well as with more long term things. One man held up the fishing net he had purchased and described how he had managed to break out of the debt cycle that many villagers are locked into by borrowing from Oxfam rather than from private lenders who charge a high interest.

Something that has surfaced in each village is the weather and the changing climate. It seems to be coming at them from all sides. Just this afternoon one woman told us of how unpredictable weather is getting; there is rain in the dry season, it is hot in the cool season and it also gets cold in a way they have never known it. The extreme heat causes diarrhea and vomiting in their children, and makes growing crops and vegetables to eat much more laborious as they try to keep up with the extra watering they need.

When I asked an Oxfam employee at the head office last week what the lack of a global climate deal from Copenhagen meant for the people of Cambodia he replied, “It means that the people who are least responsible for this disaster of climate change will continue to suffer, with increasing consequence. It also means that those who are most responsible can carry on with impunity. Failure at Copenhagen is bad news for a small nation like Cambodia.”

Meeting the villagers and hearing how the climate is impacting on their livelihoods and their children this week has made this statement so much more real, so much more meaningful for me. Going home to campaign on climate change in an environment where people are still questioning and doubting the reality of it will be increasingly hard with the memory of these warm and welcoming villagers so imprinted in my mind.

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