Eight regional collaborations in first ASEAN-CRN planning meeting

By: Kristine Villagracia

The ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (ASEAN-CRN) is established to ensure that ASEAN Member States (AMS) are in a better position to adapt their agricultural sector to climate change and optimize its mitigation potential. The first major activity of the ASEAN-CRN was conducted in early 2014 to facilitate a coordinated regional study across AMS. Based on the findings in the study, the ASEAN Regional Guidelines for Promoting CSA Practices (Regional Guidelines) have been developed and endorsed in the 37th Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry in September 2015.

The ASEAN-CRN constitutes a dialogue platform amongst AMS as well as other stakeholder groups for implementing the Regional Guidelines. Since the first official ASEAN-CRN meeting in May 2015, the network members have exchanged knowledge on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices as well as relevant processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and based on that further shaped the agenda of the ASEAN-CRN.

As a follow-up activity, the ASEAN-CRN 1st Planning Meeting has been conducted on December 14–16, 2015 in Bali, Indonesia. Selected members from the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agricultural Research and Development (ATWGARD), the ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops (ASWGC), and the ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change (AWGCC), as well as national and international research organizations, related government agencies, and development partners convened together to assess the progress of the implementation of the ASEAN-CRN Regional Guidelines for Promoting CSA Practices, concretize the strategies of the ASEAN-CRN in achieving in its objectives, and develop its 2016-2017 Work Plan.

The meeting eventually formulated the vision and objective of the network. The ASEAN-CRN envisions itself as “a capable and valued multi-stakeholder collaboration network for a sustainable, competitive, climate resilient agriculture in the ASEAN community.” Eight (8) fields of regional cooperation were also identified, namely: 1) model farming, 2) crop management, 3) stress tolerant varieties seed production, 4) appropriate CSA-technology package, 5) post-harvest handling, 6) crop insurance, 7) climate information service, and 8) pest surveillance and early warning system.

Several ideas and activities came out from the discussions and inputs from the participants during the lively and enthusiastic planning meeting. Some of the key activities that the ASEAN-CRN will be conducting in the coming months include the following:

  • Field Visit of Lao Delegates to Thai Maize Seed Village
  • Field Visit of Thai Delegates to Lao maize farms
  • Submission to UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) 44 on issues related to agriculture
  • 2nd ASEAN-CRN Meeting
  • Knowledge exchange on Crop Insurance
  • Development of funding proposals to gain support for planned projects and activities

For full summary please download here

For full documentation please see here

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