Event

04.11.2013 - 05.11.2013

Policy Forum: Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in the Agriculture Sector towards Food Security in Transition Southeast Asia

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The impacts of climate change are among the major challenges facing Southeast Asia (SEA). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) observed an increasing trend in mean surface air temperature in the region in the past several decades, with 0.1–0.3°C increase per decade recorded between 1951 and 2000. The region has also experienced an increasing trend in rainfall and rising sea levels (at 1–3 mm per year). The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events have also increased in recent decades. This includes increases in the number of hot days and warm nights and decreases in the number of cold days and cold nights; a significant rise in heavy precipitations events; and an increase in the number of tropical cyclones. These climatic changes have led to massive flooding, landslides, and droughts in many parts of the region, causing extensive damage to property, assets, and human life. Climate change is also exacerbating water shortages in many areas, constraining agricultural production and threatening food security, causing forest fires and degradation and damaging coastal and marine resources.

The agriculture sector constitutes a major aspect of climate change adaptation within the National Adaptation Program of Action on Climate Change of countries in SEA. Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar, for example, have listed agriculture as a priority sector with many priority projects under it, signaling these measures to be responding to urgent and immediate needs. Further delay may increase vulnerability and could lead to bigger costs later.

This forum will promote the “exchange of relevant scientific, technological, technical, socio- economic and legal information related to the climate system and climate change, and to the economic and social consequences of various response strategies.”

Participants

Around 30 representatives from government, academe and the private sector from Asia are expected to participate. Target institutions from each country may include, but not be limited to, its Ministry of Agriculture, socio-economic planning agency, other agencies working on mainstreaming climate change adaptation, and universities.

Objectives

  1. Discuss an array of adaptation strategies on coping with the challenges in agriculture and food brought about by climate change;
  2. Appreciate the requisites for an enabling environment to meet its challenges;
  3. Understand mainstreaming approaches and challenges;
  4. Identify appropriate entry points at both policy and implementation levels for integrating climate change adaptation strategies into development plans;
  5. Identify financial instruments to fund efforts in mainstreaming; and
  6. Explore possible partnerships between and among APAN, SEARCA, other APAN nodes, governments, and other development organizations to actively collaborate on research, capacity building, and other activities to mainstream adaptation strategies in the agriculture sector.

Tentative Agenda

Day1: 5 November 2013 Registration; Keynote speeches; Presentations on Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in the Agriculture Sector: Approaches and Entry Points, Challenges and Prospects and Financing Mechanisms for Mainstreaming, country presentations on Mainstreaming: Experiences, Constraints and Opportunities.

Day2: 6 November 2013 Presentations and discussion on finding entry points and levels of intervention for mainstreaming, Synthesis and The Way Forward, visit to Ministries/Field Trip

TAGS:

  • agriculture/food security
  • APAN
  • mainstreaming adaptation
  • SEARCA