ASEAN ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE, FOOD SECURITY

JAKARTA, Dec 19 (Bernama) -- Asean is making a move towards elaborating a
regional strategy on agriculture, forestry and fisheries in order to address the
global issue of climate change.

This follows the global commitment and response to climate change agreed at
the recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in
Poznan, Poland.

The fourth ASEC Brown Bag Series by the Asean Secretariat Thursday titled
"Climate Change and Food Security: Challenges for Asean", highlighted the need
for strategic planning and policy coordination in Asean to address the complex
and interrelated issues of food security and climate change.

Guest speakers were Dr Wulf Killmann, chairman of the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations' (FAO) Interdepartmental Working Group on
Climate Change and director of the Forest Products & Industries Division of
FAO's Forestry Department, and Dr Irsal Las, head of the Indonesian Center for
Agricultural Land Resources Research and Development.

Dr Killmann pointed to the interrelation of climate change, food security
and forestry and underscored that inter-sectoral coordination was required to
meet changing and more difficult environmental conditions.

"Societies will have to weigh trade-offs between land-uses," he said,
concluding that climate change could only be dealt with in an integrated manner
through integrated land-use policies and implementation at local, national,
regional and international levels.

Dr Las called for collaborative research and regional strategy development
in Asean, including the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors to address
the impact of climate change effectively.

"The impact of climate change to agriculture has broadened and therefore
requires a holistic strategy to this situation. Climate change is a
trans-boundary issue, so policy coherence, knowledge-oriented policy-making as
well as mutual learning and common understanding among Asean member states are
crucial to this end," he said.

Meanwhile, the principal director of the Bureau for Economic Integration
and
Finance at the Asean Secretariat, S. Pushpanathan said Asean through its
ministers for agriculture and forestry had adopted a strategic plan of action on
Asean food security where linkages with climate change were emphasised.

"Asean is also committed to pursuing a regional plan to elaborate measures
in dealing with mitigation and adaptation to climate change on agriculture,
fisheries and forestry that will lay the foundation for tackling important and
interrelated issues of climate change, including food security," he
said.

More ASEC Brown Bag Series on contemporary topics of interest to Asean will
be organised in the coming months as the Asean Secretariat intensifies its
public outreach efforts to promote the Asean Community and the work of
Asean.
-- BERNAMA