JAKARTA, 21 February 2023 – Today, the ASEAN Secretariat’s (ASEC) Food, Agriculture and Forestry Division (FAFD) organised a Regional Workshop on the Study on Decarbonising the ASEAN Agriculture and Forestry Sector in collaboration with the ASEAN-German Cooperation Project on Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains in ASEAN (ASEAN AgriTrade).
In his remarks, Head of the FAFD Dr. Pham Quang Minh underlined the sectors’ importance in addressing the issue of decarbonisation as part of the carbon neutrality strategy in the region.
As Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use has been a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change, ASEAN has put the decarbonisation of the agricultural and forestry sectors as one of the key priorities under its cooperation.
Florian Miss, Principal Advisor to the ASEAN Agritrade Project, implemented by GIZ, echoed that climate change has been a big challenge for the region and has affected the sustainable food system. He welcomed the initiative to move forward with the decarbonisation pathways and supported regional efforts toward that direction.
Some of the initial recommendations towards decarbonisation efforts in the agriculture and forestry sectors were to reduce the use of chemical-intensive farms, enhance efficient utilisation of resources (e.g., water, land and fertiliser), and to promote sustainable land management techniques (e.g, agroforestry).
Participants also emphasised the need to improve agriculture systems’ resilience by minimising unsustainable practices and by promoting sustainable and circular agriculture which include nature-based solutions, ecosystem-based approaches to farming, and climate-smart agriculture practices.
Other initiatives that were considered important for the land-use sector included enhancement of sustainable forest management and promotion of reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, fostering of conservation and sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks implementation.
The workshop provided an overview of climate change impacts in agriculture and forestry, greenhouse gases emissions from agriculture and forestry, decarbonisation pathways and approaches, and policy recommendations towards decarbonisation efforts in ASEAN.
To complement this particular study, ASEC is also working with ASEAN Member States on a study on Decarbonisation Strategies of Agriculture in ASEAN with support from Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument.
For more information on the studies, please get in touch with the Food, Agriculture Forestry Division NRU@asean.org.
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