During the last week of September, AnnaMaria Oltorp and Ulrika Åkesson from the Development Cooperation Section at the Embassy in Bangkok visited the Yunnan Province in China to follow-up – in the field – the results of the “Core Environment Programme” (CEP), funded by Sweden since 2006, the Swedish Embassy wrote on its Facebook-page.
CEP aims to achieve an environmentally friendly and climate resilient Greater Mekong Subregion (i.e: Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and two provinces in China, Yunnan and Guangxi).
Small scale funds to different actors in the GMS-provinces in China has led to more attention to the importance of environmental sustainability and has especially made people understand and see the value of ecosystem services.
It has been shown that increased awareness of these issues can lead to people at village level becoming more aware of the value of natural resources and also to an increased will to work together to protect it.
China will now bring this work –that started in 2007 – further with own funds whilst some new areas will be funded with Swedish support to start off similar work. The revolving funds (small scale loans with low interest rates) that were started up at village level to strengthen people´s livelihoods – will continue through the next phase of the programme. The regional dialogue has also been strengthened with Swedish funds: China is for example now sharing experiences with Myanmar and Laos on important cross-border issues.
Source: The Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok.
