In recent years, a number of global assessment reports, such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, the Stern Review 2007 and the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) have all emphasized the vulnerability to climate change impacts and inability to cope with projected climate change scenarios. Numerous factors underscore the vulnerability of the region to climate change impacts. One notable aspect is that the livelihoods of the poor majority (especially women and children) are highly dependent on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and pastoral practices. Local people depend on forests for household energy, food security, water supply, herbs and tree bark as the first line of primary healthcare. These livelihood activities also contribute a significant proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries in the region.
Climate change is considered to be one of the major threats to sustainable development because of its impacts on health, infrastructure, settlements, agriculture and food security, and forest ecosystems. An increasing frequency of extreme events such as increased temperatures, drought conditions and intermittent floods are expected to stretch natural systems. Climate change constitutes an additional burden on top of poverty, disease, illiteracy, weak institutional capacity, war, unstable political governments, poor infrastructure and other global environmental change issues (such as land-use change, land degradation, desertification and biodiversity loss), which limit development in country in the region from realizing major global targets such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
