CLASSIFICATION AND INVENTORY OF WETLAND /AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM LAO PDR Consultancy Report By Saleumsy PHITTAYAPHONE National Wetland Specialist Vientiane October 2003 2 CONTENT I INTRODUCTION II METHODOLOGY III ANALYSIS OF DATA AND INFORMATION III.1 Existing Wetland Areas III.2 Current Status of Wetland Areas in Lao PDR III.2.1 National Institutions Related to Wetlands III.2.2 Threat to Wetland III.2.3 The Changes of Wetland Areas III.3 Important Wetland Type III.3.1 Wetland Type classified by the Important in Lao PDR III.3.2 List of Important Wetland Type classified by the Sites in Lao PDR III.3.3 Selection of Monitoring Site for monitoring changes of people’s livelihood and aquatic ecosystems IV CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION V REFERENCE VI ANNEXES 3 List of Acronyms Used ADB Asian Development Bank BMP Best Management Practice CPAWM Center for Protected Areas and Watershed Management DFRC Division of Forest Resources Conservation CPAWM Center for Protected Areas and Watershed Management DFRC Division of Forest Resources Conservation DAFO District Agriculture and Forestry Office DoA Department of Agriculture DoF Department of Forestry DLF Department of Livestock and Fishery MAF Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry NBCA National Biodiversity Conservation Areas PA Protected Areas PAFO Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office PFO Provincial Forestry Office MRC Mekong River Commission IRC Integrated Research Center LARReC Living Aquatic Research Center IUCN International Lao PDR Lao People Democratic Republic WBSJ Wild Bird Society of Japan LNMC Lao National Mekong Committee WCS Wildlife Conservation Society WWF World Wild Fund for Nature Conservation STEA Science Technology and Environment Office NARC National Agriculture Research Center FRC Forestry Research Center NOFIP The National Office for Forest Inventory and Planning MIH Ministry of Industry and Handicraft IED Industrial Environment Division EIA Environment Impact Assessment MCTPC Ministry of Communication, Transport, Post and Construction MT Ministry of Trade NUOL The National University of Lao 4 I INTRODUCTION This report has been written for the Mekong River Commission (MRC) by the wetland specialist, to gather and collect data and information concerned to the purpose of Component A2 of the Environment program of the Mekong River Commission - People and Aquatic Ecosystems is to provide timely information on trends and change in dynamics of aquatic habitats to prevent or minimize harmful effects particularly on the rural poor who are highly dependant on the Basin’s aquatic productivity, including review of issues relating to the wetland/aquatic ecosystem is essential for monitoring and policy development. I.1 Scope and Objectives Principle of the report is compilation of data and information on wetland/aquatic ecosystem with particular reference to wetland importance, types, functions, values, ecology, threats and economic valuation of wetland types. I.2 History of Wetland in Lao PDR The Wetland Organization in Lao PDR is mainly under Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) since 1990 (According to the Water and Water Resources Law, Year 1996). However, its structure has been changed for many time, first established in 1990 was the Wetland Management Project, under the Integrated Research Centre (IRC) from 1990 to 1992, which then changed into many names in order such as the Center for Protected Areas and Watershed Management (CPAWM) from 1992 to 1996, and the Division of Forest Resources Conservation (DFRC) from 1996 to 1999, those named organization is under Department of Forestry. The latest reorganization, the wetland project has been transferred to the Living Aquatic Resource Research Centre (LARReC) since 1999. The Lao Government launched its Wetland Management Programme in 1990, supported by the MRC, with the implementation were not continuously and divided into two phases: phase I from 1990 to 1996 for an inventory and site selection and demonstration at Nong Chanh Marsh and That Luang Swamp, the Urban wetlands in Vientiane Prefecture and phase II from 1998 to1999 for a monitoring of those wetland areas, which all aiming to develop comprehensive guidelines for the sustainable long- term management of the country’s wetlands. In additional, with the collaboration between CPAWM (now’s call DFRC) staff and the IUCN specialist, together carried out an inventory of wetland at almost in whole country wetland areas in 1993, with all data and information of this inventory were compiled as a book of Wetland Inventory in Lao PDR, Claridge 1996. With the total number of 30 sites mainly in the central and southern parts of Lao PDR, are covered by the goals of the international Ramsar Conservation definition. Another concerned Wetland Projects, included the Initial Survey in Xepian Wetland Project (from 1997 to 1999), Attapeu province, in the south part of Lao PDR, supported 5 by the Wild Bird Society of Japan (WBSJ), aimed to collect data and information for a planning of Management Project Proposal, due to the high value of biodiversity of the area, particularly the crocodiles and upgraded the skill and knowledge of staff, by provided the training course on “ Rapid Assessment on Wetland Ecosystem”. The “Community Fishery and Irrawady Dolphin Protection Project” (from 1993 to 1996) funded by the Earth Irelands, Canada Fund. And the project namely “Environmental Protection and Community Development in Siphandon Wetland, Champasack province”, in the south part of Lao PDR (from 1997 to 1998,and extent to 1999) supported by CESVI ( the International Cooperation and Development Organization of Italy), which these two projects aimed to find the way of management based on local participatory to improve the people livelihood and sustainable fishery and Conservation of Dolphin in the Mekong River. The survey project in Attapeu province in 2000, supported by ADB. I.3 Meaning of Wetland to Lao Wetlands play a very important role in the lives of the Lao people. With a population of 4.5 million, the majority of the people live in the wetland-rich Mekong basin and is dependent on wetland for their daily subsistence and income generation. The meaning of “Wetland” in Lao’s perspective is still among confused, the wetland is under intense and extensive use by the local inhabitants, another society views wetlands are important wildlife habitat areas, it lead to a complicated identification of the areas by the users and between the conservation and management aspect. However, most of Lao people are relied on wetlands for their daily subsistence. So, combination of conservation for sustainable use, are an option based on the Lao government strategy for the wetland management. Source: wetland Inventory, Claridge (1996) 6 II METHODOLOGY II.1 Compilation of Existing Data and Information The existing Data and information are available and compiled by the team ( list of the documents available is attached) II.2 Negotiation/Discussion/ Interview Visit to some key concerned agencies, (which their role and responsibilities are described in III.2.1): • Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (particularly the Biodiversity Project) • Department of Forestry (Division for Forest Resources Conservation) • Department of Livestock and Fishery • National Agriculture and Forestry Institution (LARReC) • STEA (Department of Environment) • Town Planning Research Institution (Vientiane Municipality Improvement Project) • Some National, International Organizations/NGO’s: LNMC, IUCN, WCS, WWF II.3 Collection of Additional Data/Information Some Data/information were additional collection from the line concerned agencies/organizations and some are collected directly from the field. II.4 Field Observation in some Wetlands Areas The Field observation are used mainly in the easier access wetland such as the Nong Chanh Marsh and That Luang Swamp in Vientiane Prefecture, another were in Nong Bo Wetland in Vientiane Province, about 50 kilometers by road far from Vientiane Prefecture. 7 II ANALYSIS/RESULTS OF DATA AND INFORMATION III.1 Existing Wetland Areas Source: wetland Inventory, Claridge (1996) III.1.1 Data Analysis As we already known, There are 30 sites of wetland areas in Lao PDR or about 968,180 hectares mainly in the central and southern parts of Lao PDR were surveyed only important wetland type (see annex 2 and 4). However, those areas are not including all wetland areas in whole country, more important areas in the north are not yet surveyed and not much data and information were additional collected, there were only several wetlands had been collected more data and information such as Nong Chanh Marsh, That Luang Swamp, Xepian wetland and Siphandon wetland (Khone fall). The wetlands of Lao PDR are of outstanding international importance (Claridge 1996, Thewlis et al. 1998). The Ramsar Convention defines wetlands as ‘areas of marsh, fen, peat-land, or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters’. Many of the habitats included do not occur in Lao PDR (e.g. all salt, brackish and tidal wetlands), and some habitats provided for under this definition which do occur in Lao PDR are of minimal biodiversity conservation 8 importance; following Claridge (1996), rice paddies and aquaculture ponds are omitted from further consideration, In contrast to Claridge, however, rivers, even including small forest streams, are retained in the definition, different from MRC definition. The wetland management Project, under Department of Forestry had been digitized and produced the Wetland Mekong Corridor map from the topographic map and satellite imagery, as scale 1:250,000 in 1995, and scale 1:100,000 in 1996. The wetland Classification were also defined as shown in the annex 3. III.1.2 Results and Discussion The Lao wetland inventory is needed to continue survey as an appropriated system within whole country, particularly the extension survey to the north part. In additional the existing wetland areas are also necessary to continue monitoring and collect more detail data and information on their richness of biodiversity and ecosystem.