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Published on November 19, 2007

The latest Asia-Pacific-region environment report to be released today says the lower Mekong area is "highly sensitive to climate change".

The report, "Up in Smoke: Asia and the Pacific", said the United Nations Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expected the lower-Mekong region would face more extreme weather events, as average temperatures had risen between 0.3 and 0.8 degrees Celsius over the past century.

The International Institute for Environment and Develop-ment report contains contributions from non-profit organisations.

Its foreword is from IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri and warns climate change could have a major impact on the region's ecosystems and biodiversity, hydrology and water resources, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, mountains and coastal lands and human settlements and health.

It encouraged governments in the four lower-Mekong countries - Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Thailand - to immediately take action to tackle the problems.

"Adaptation and mitigation measures are crucial and should be incorporated into future development plans adopted at the country level," it recommended.

"Up in Smoke" said a one-metre sea-level rise could flood 15,000 to 20,000 square kilometres of the Mekong River delta.

In this scenario, it said, some 2,500 square kilometres of mangroves would be lost and around 1,000 square kilometres of cultivated land and marine farms would become salt marsh.

In Thailand, rising sea levels could cause saltwater intrusion 40 kilometres up the Chao Phya, Tha Chin and Bang Pakong rivers.

The report warned that 10 million people could be affected when salt contaminated their main freshwater source.

Increasing aridity resulting from global warming will damage thousands of plant species in the country's tropical forests, it added.

The Nation