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Seychelles struggles to adapt to climate change in a losing battle

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Seychelles islands [File Photo]

This season Jacques Matombe had to burn 14,300 U.S. dollars worth of pumpkin that he spent months growing on his farm in Seychelles. There was no other way to stop the disease spreading to his crop.

"It was out of control," he said, standing in a field of crispy pumpkin plants. "You have to burn it."

Disease and pests have become a problem for Matombe and other locals who farm the Aseroyale Plateau on Mahe, Seychelles' main island. Once cool, trade winds are now warmer, fostering the right breeding grounds for disease.

The change in temperature and unusual, extreme seasons have made farming even more unforgiving, said Matombe, noting that his neighbor recently had to burn thousands of dollars worth of Chinese cabbage after they became infected.

"The disease attacks the heart," he said.

Matombe's five hectares of farmland must support his family of five children and keep 30 workers employed. But changing weather patterns have increased the costs of running his farm, raising the stakes in a precarious livelihood.

Climate change is making it more difficult to for Seychelles to achieve food security, said Antoine Marie Moustache, the co-chair of Seychelles' Agricultural Agency on Food and Security, and a member of the National Climate Change Committee.

"In the last 12, 13 years now, we've seen many cases where the weather has been totally against us," he told Xinhua. "We've experienced serious extreme events, heavy downpours, (and) a lot of droughts in between."

To make matters even more challenging, roughly 70 percent of Seychelles' agricultural land lies along the coast. Famers are complaining that their land is being inundated by a number of tidal surges and their freshwater sources are mixing with saltwater.

"Farmers traditionally used to use (freshwater sources) on the coastal plateau to irrigate but they cannot do that to any major extent right now," he said. "They always have to take note that it can become contaminated with seawater."

The most Seychelles can do is adapt, to carry out projects that keep the seawater out of farmland or that prevent coastal erosion. But the tiny African nation, with a population of less than 85,000 people, is one of the most indebted countries in the world.

Without foreign assistance, adjust to climate change will be virtually impossible. Poorer nations will need 75 to 100 billion U. S. dollars per year through the year 2050 for adaptation projects, according to the World Bank.

A Stone's Throw Away

Willis Agricole is Seychelles' director-general for Climate and Environmental Services in the Department of Environment and the focal point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In October, he told Xinhua that negotiators from rich nations have been reluctant to ink any final numbers on adaptation finance and mid-term targets, something which is still true today.

Dismayed by the lack of progress made at the UN climate talks, Agricole noted the rift between developing and developed countries over whether to build on the Kyoto Protocol or start fresh. The international climate treaty, which the U.S. never ratified, commits a targeted number of industrialized nations to specific emission cuts.

Much to the chagrin of Agricole, the U.S., and "others hiding behind the U.S.," want to abandon the Kyoto Protocol. They argue that the world has changed dramatically since the treaty was drafted in 1997 and emerging economies should be included in a new, legally binding agreement.

"The argument is that the world has changed, and we know that," Agricole said. "But then they have the historical responsibility for climate change. Climate change is an additional burden which was not created by developing countries or small island states."

"We, as vulnerable states are saying that we should be given finances for us to adapt and we want the finance now, not in 2020, not in 2030, but now because we are being faced daily by adverse effects of climate change, be it coastal erosion, extreme weather event, (and) tropical cyclones," he said.

Whether developed countries deliver aid dollars at the Copenhagen summit in December awaits to be seen. According to reports, Copenhagen will produce a political deal, not a legally binding agreement, which could delay a treaty for up to one year.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton echoed other key negotiators and called the UN climate talks in Copenhagen a "steppingstone," a far cry from UN Chief Ban Ki-moon' s mantra of "Seal the Deal."

The Seychelles government released a statement on Thursday expressing its concern at attempts to steamroll the world's most vulnerable countries into accepting a watered down political agreement.

As a member of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Seychelles reaffirmed its call for emission cuts in the short and medium-term that would limit temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, minimizing the impacts of climate change to vulnerable island nations.

Industrial nations have been aiming for targets that limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above those levels.

Holding up a badge and a pen brandishing the slogan, "1.5 to stay alive," Agricole said AOSIS had the support of 100 countries. However, he acknowledged that most were only small emitters of greenhouse gases.

"If we don't get this as small island developing states, then it's as if we are putting a death sentence on our country," he said. "We'll still fight very hard to get our position within the framework within the new agreement."

On Rocky Ground

A row of houses line a meandering road along the northern coast of Mahe. On the other side of the road, small waves break onto a pebbled beach. The ocean is calm, for now. But sand fanned out along the road's black tarp is evidence of what the sea is capable of in the wee hours.

Alain de Comarmond, the director of Environmental Assessments and Permits at the Seychelles' Department of Environment, said residents are concerned about the tide's progression on to their property.

"Because they see it already," he told Xinhua. "Already, its coming onto the road. And during the worst times, or worst events, then it gets to the other side of the road. This is really happening. It stands to get worse in future, definitely."

All that stands in between the homes and the ocean is a small heap of rocks, the government's attempt at a seawall, built after a cyclone swept through the island in Dec. 2006.

"With an increase in sea levels in the future, in regards to climate change, then the risk stands to increase in future," said de Comarmond as he surveyed the area. "It's a real challenge to the government."

Nanette Laure, the acting director for the Environmental Engineering Section said the government can really only either plant vegetation or build walls to reduce coastal erosion. It's an ongoing battle against nature that takes constant attention and maintenance.

"What we are seeing is that most of the coastal areas have been degraded and erosion is happening at an alarming rate," said Laure. "So we trying our best to try and mitigate the erosion that is happening. Of course it's not easy because we need funding in terms of financial resources."