This internship aims to offer students undergoing graduate or post-graduate studies and recent graduates a meaningful work experience by supplementing their learning through a practical and on-the-job training approach. In doing so, the intern’s knowledge is supplemented through a practical learning experience while IUCN derives some level of advantage from the young professional’s services as well as the possibility of gaining new perspectives from the intern.

CMDA: Enhancing sustainability of the Transboundary Cambodia – Mekong River Delta Aquifer

The sustainability of water resources and the health of the Delta and Tonle Sap ecosystems cannot be achieved without a proper and shared understanding of the transboundary aquifer shared by Vietnam and Cambodia, and regional groundwater flow regimes, especially with regard to the up-gradient recharge zones within the Cambodian territory.

The establishment of cooperative management frameworks for this major transboundary aquifer embracing the whole Mekong delta and extending upstream in Cambodia, is of critical importance because of the region’s high dependence on water resources, and vulnerability to climate-related hazards (floods and droughts, sea level rise). So far, two major barriers have hindered the implementation of cooperative groundwater resources management strategies and plans: i) the different levels of understanding that the two countries have of the TBA system, and; ii) the differences in groundwater management policies in Cambodia and Viet Nam that increase the difficulty of reaching a bilateral agreement for sustainable TBA development.

The project started in December 2023 and to end in November 2028.

TCCF: Increasing coastal resilience in the Mekong Delta through hybrid nature-based solutions

The project will expand the area of mangroves inside the sea dike in coastal communes in Soc Trang and Bac Lieu by testing and then scaling up a hybrid nature-based solution (NbS) that combines mangrove restoration (through natural and assisted regeneration) and the conversion of shrimps production from large, open-air ponds to hyper-intensive Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), which produce 20-time more shrimp per unit area basis with much lower disease risk. This conversion will eliminate or greatly reduce the need to pump groundwater to dilute pond water, thereby reducing land subsidence which at 2.5 cm/year is 5 times greater than global SLR. The major project output is the technical and financial feasibility of hybrid-NbS demonstrated by 45 shrimp farming households managing about 45 hectares of land. Of this, 70% will revert to mangrove-shrimp and 30% to RAS and other land uses. Knowledge on RAS and its integration with mangroves will be shared with businesses to inspire them to adopt the technology. The results from these demonstrations will feed into large internationally financed projects on mangrove restoration and coastal resilience. The coastal communes of Bac Lieu and Soc Trang are home to about 250,000 people of which 20% or about 10,000 households are involved in shrimp farming. If these new projects assist them to transition to mangrove-shrimp farming, mangrove cover will increase by 4,000 hectares. This is by far the largest mangrove restoration
opportunity in Viet Nam.

The project started in January 2024 and to end in December 2026.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the direct supervision of the Mekong Delta Programme Manager, the Communications Intern will perform the following tasks:

– Provide communications support to document project highlights and promote the work of IUCN Vietnam (Videography, photography, social media, story write-ups, publications, translations, and interpretation, etc);
– Support the IUCN MD team with administrative and communication output;
– Support the implementation of communication and marketing actions;
– Provide technical support during training programs, such as helping with the workshop organization;
– Other duties as may be required.

During the Communications Intern service period, the following outputs will be expected:

Deliverable 1: (15 November 2024)
Provide communication outputs (Videography, photography, social media, story write-ups, publications, translations, and interpretation, etc) for CMDA and TCCF projects.

Deliverable 2:(30 January 2025)
Provide technical support during training programs, such as helping with the workshop organization.

Deliverable 3: (14 March 2025)
Provide support for the implementation of communication and marketing actions