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The SOUTHEAST ASIA REGIONAL INITIATIVES FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT (SEARICE) is a regional development organization that promotes and strengthens conservation and sustainable utilization of agricultural biodiversity with farmers and farming communities in Bhutan, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand and the Philippines.
Several farming communities where SEARICE works have experienced an observable and verifiable change in climate as manifested by extreme weather events, increasing vulnerability of food crop varieties to pests and diseases which further reduces crop productivity. In Lao PDR and the Philippines, in particular, farmers have reported the occurrence of new and strange insect pest species and the cycle and timing of pests and disease occurrence has become too unpredictable for farmers to manage. These confirm the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the impact of climate change on agriculture will certainly result in reduced yield in warmer regions, increased insect outbreaks, and that heavy and more frequent precipitation events will very likely lead to damage to crops: soil erosion and inability to cultivate lands due to waterlogging of soils. Areas affected by drought will increase, and consequently, the likelihood of crop failure. The same report also pointed out that there would likely be salinization of irrigation systems, estuaries and freshwater system due to extreme incidence of high sea levels.
The findings of the IPCC report on the impact of climate change on agriculture has far reaching implications - climate change is threatening the food supply systems of Asia, undermines efforts to address rural poverty and is compromising the livelihood systems of millions of farming communities in Asia. The small-holder men and women farmers, pastoralists and fisherfolk, while faced with day-to-day struggles of producing food for their communities, will be rendered more vulnerable with the impacts of climate change particularly when prolonged droughts or excessive rainfall destroy their harvests. World resources and equal attention should be focused on supporting and enabling smallholder men and women farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists and local communities to adapt and cope with the changing environmental regime in a sustainable manner.
SEARICE’s experience in working with farming communities has shown that innovations done by men and women farmers and local communities to develop agricultural biodiversity are potential agricultural adaptation strategies. Through community plant breeding, rice farmers in Vietnam, for example have been able to breed and develop 182 rice varieties, three of which are tolerant to saline conditions in the Mekong delta region; a rice farming community in the Philippines has been able to select rice varieties that are tolerant to drought conditions. With crop varieties tried and tested in different farming conditions, varietal development is shortened and farmers are able to benefit from the varieties in three to four years. To date, more than 700 communities in 45 provinces of Bhutan, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are involved in breeding and selection of food crop varieties under very specific conditions, supported by local government units, civil society organizations and agriculture researchers.
Likewise, parallel support should be accorded to support farming communities to manage pests by strengthening community integrated pest management programs. We urge the world’s governments to provide adequate funding to equip local governments to train farmers to observe and effectively manage pest and disease populations in a sustainable manner.
SEARICE believes that such adaptation strategies builds from local knowledge, are less costly, and more practical and effective than focusing research and development resources for the promotion of techno-fix solutions, such as costly climate-ready crops and genetically-modified pest-resistant crops whose effects on biodiversity and human health and public safety remain questionable.
Despite the fact that climate changes are impacting intensely on agriculture and food systems, these are rarely considered in discourses on climate change and in the negotiations. References to agriculture are generally limited to carbon capturing systems, which are techno fixes that may bring about more problems rather than solutions. It is imperative for our survival that discussions on Climate Change focus on measures to ensure food security.
SEARICE recognizes the urgency to minimize the effects of global warming through mitigation and calls on developed countries to make deep, early and domestic cuts on their carbon emissions. However, developed countries should adhere to the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibility and abide by the Precautionary Principle enshrined in the Rio Declaration in putting forward technologies to mitigate the impact of climate change.
In the context of food and agriculture, practices such as seaweed cultivation, and putting up plantations to grow agrofuel crops can lead to the displacement of farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples groups with adverse implications on biological diversity of marine and farming habitats. Ocean fertilization could disrupt the balance of marine ecosystems and can cause adverse economic impact on coastal and farming communities dependent on marine resources.
Such technologies, for example, should be subjected to comprehensive technological assessment that will consider the perspective of farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous and local communities that would likely be affected.
Likewise, environmentally and socially appropriate technologies must be made available to all without the restrictions of intellectual property rules. In the event that such use and transfer of technology entail any fees, such costs must be shouldered by developed countries.
The issues of climate change must be addressed by a binding multilateral legal instrument adopted in the COP.Bilateral agreements do not protect the interests of developing countries and often result in a lopsided agreement in favor of developed countries.
Farmers in developing countries must not pay for the effects of centuries-old burning of fossil fuels by developed countries. Developed countries must own up to their climate debt by giving farmers in the developing countries and their governments new, adequate, sustainable, predictable and timely flow of financial resources to adapt to the impacts of climate change. These financing must take the form of payment of the climate debt, rather than loans; developing countries should not incur new debts for adaptation. Moreover, SEARICE calls on developed country governments to allocate a percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP) for adaptation support to developing countries. Such funds should be administered by the COP and not by existing International Financial Institutions (IFIs).
Moreover, the planning and formulation of climate change frameworks and initiatives in each country should involve the participation of local communities, including farmers’ groups, fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples groups, civil society organizations and other relevant organizations, as they are rich sources of local knowledge and informal innovations. The warming of the climate system is unequivocal. It is a global problem but its solution must be local, taking into account specific community needs, and socially and culturally appropriate and sustainable solutions. |
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