Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies in RA V to Impacts of Climate Change/Variability and Natural Disasters

1. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies in RA V to Impacts of Climate Change/Variability and Natural Disasters Lourdes V. Tibig Philippines

2. Pacific Islands Countries Adaptation Strategies • Traditional forms of environmental adaptation • growing resilient staple crops; • crop diversity; • use of forest wood resources; and • food storage and preservation • Use of generic policy instruments that also enhance adaptive capacity • sustainable development policy; • population policy to reduce pressure on resources; • environmental legislation; and • public awareness building about climate change

3. Pacific Islands Countries Adaptation Strategies • options to promote climate disaster reduction • improve warning systems including use of technical and traditional warning systems and developing appropriate responses in the events of warnings; • maintain crop diversity and reducing current and growing dependence on crops that are highly vulnerable to high winds; • risk-based assessments of and responses to extreme events, disasters and climate variability; and • use of seasonal and longer term forecasts to reduce current vulnerability to climate variability/extremes (e.g., El Niño forecast, etc.)

4. Pacific Islands Countries Mitigation Options The forestry sector offers opportunities for mitigation. Identified option is developing a sustainable supply of trees.

5. Fiji Adaptation Strategies • Develop sustainable agro-forestry systems to raise and diversify production, improved soil fertility, prevent soil loss, and reduce dependence and external inputs; • Intensive high-impact agricultural systems in lowlands; • Introduce short-duration cover crops and legumes to improve soil fertility and structure, conserve moisture, reduce build-up of weeds and pests, and reduce reliance on important chemicals and fertilizers; • Farming systems research; • Other options include breeding and introduction of salt-water tolerant root crops and more drought-resistant cultivars, intercropping and increased crop diversity (away from monocultural sugarcane production) and encouraging soil and water conservation practices; and • A four-component national initiative is considered which includes the development of a national policy framework for adaptation, capacity building and institutional strengthening, public awareness and education and community-based management.

6. Southeast Asia (Indonesia) Adaptation Strategies • Use of timely, accurate climate information and seasonal forecasts to improve preparedness; • More efficient water usage (i.e., intermittent flooding, improved rural irrigation systems); • Improvement of the cultural techniques used in many parts of the outer islands; • Expansion of rice cultivation, particularly to the under-utilized swampy areas; • Crop diversification; • Improving plant breeding programs to adapt to the gradually changing conditions; • Using high temperature-tolerant rice varieties; and • Improving microclimate in rice fields, such as planting trees parallel to the ricefield to induce winds that can reduce temperatures.

7. Southeast Asia (Malaysia) Adaptation Strategies • Provision of timely meteorological information and forecast, as well as advance warnings in the occurrence of adverse weather phenomena; • Science and technology measures such as widespread adoption of short maturing varieties and continued screening of new varieties to suit different rice environments; • Role of government in diversifying sources of income among resource poor farmers away from the agricultural sector to reduce risks brought about by climate variability such as El Niños through direct income support and other supportive measures. • Maximize efficient usage of water and nutrient input including optimizing the use of water resources and minimizing wastage through indigenous capabilities in the area of water recycling activities and the implementation of water management and control systems and also the use of water impounding technology in sugarcane plantation and other water-saving technologies such as the use of dry rotovation, micro-irrigation and re-circulating water systems; and

8. Southeast Asia (Malaysia) Adaptation Strategies • Preserve water catchment areas; • Develop appropriate management practices for post harvest handling; including enhancement of support services with improvements in storage, delivery and distribution system; • Strengthen integrated pest management and biocontrol procedures for control of pests and diseases; • Research on impact of environment on animal physiology and develop more effective designs of animal housing structures to ameliorate heat stress; • Implement microclimatic modification through landscaping and agroforestry; and • Develop appropriate responses to land-use conversion addressing its socio- economic causes.

9. Southeast Asia (Philippines) Adaptation Strategies • Conservation of remaining forests in what are called National Integrated Protected Area Systems (NIPAS) sites and watershed areas; • Reforestration and rehabilitation of barren upland areas through tree planting and agroforestry; • Community-based forestry activities such as community organizing and development; • Adaptation options focused on helping vulnerable species migrate, assisting local communities to shift from forest products from forest at risks, etc; • Mainstreaming adaptation in development programs; • Empowering the local communities to broaden their range of choices of appropriate strategies rather than being dependent on external support; • Biodiversity conservation; and

10. Southeast Asia (Philippines) Adaptation Strategies • Overall adaptation strategy focused on identifying which forest areas are more at risk and which species are unique in these areas. • Adapting agricultural management practices to current needs including cropping pattern adjustment, diversified farming, efficient use and management of fertilizers; • Improved water management; • Developing heat, drought - resistant varieties; • Use of decision – matrix in agricultural planning; • Improvement of post-harvest facilities; • Provision of timely, accurate seasonal climate information and forecasts, including dialogue between producers of climate information/forecasts and users (to assess value of information); • Extensive review/analysis of economic subsidies with a view of changing them if warranted;

11. Southeast Asia (Philippines) Adaptation Strategies • Institutionalize agricultural drought management; • Strengthen extension services at the local government unit level; • Pass and implement strictly legislative measures on land-use conversion; • Assessment of current practices on disaster management and integrating disaster preparedness and risk management in government policies on climate change issues; • Public awareness programs; and

12. Southeast Asia (Philippines) Adaptation Strategies • Crisis-adaptive agricultural practices by indigenous tribes such as: • Planting of tree belts along farm boundaries as wind breakers; • Pruning and cropping of fruit and flowering trees to lessen weight of trees; • Multicropping and intercropping; • Planting fields are usually located in high elevated and mountainous slopes; • Use of ditches/canals to divert rainwater away from their crops during rainy days; • Herding of cows/buffalos to the part of the hills where wind velocity is less; • Speedy harvest of ready crops before the typhoon hits the area; and • Use of drought-resistant crops/root crops only

13. Southeast Asia (Philippines) Mitigation Options • Use of biogas digesters(commercially and at farm level); • Researches on methane emission reduction strategies on rice production; and • Energy production from biomass (e.g. bagasse, rice hull, etc.); and • A carbon offset program to sequester C emission and hasten reforestation of barren areas.

14. Australasia Adaptation Strategies • Landscape management as an integrated approach; • Review of drought and disaster relief polices, with a view of changing government policies from support to restructuring, etc; • Seasonal and long-lead climate forecasting to better manage agricultural and natural ecosystems; • Reassessment of appropriate land-use and management practices, on which government is to base policies; • Changes in the mix of production between for example, wool, lamb and beef, dairy products, horticulture and viticulture, farm and plantation forestry, and also, increasing exports of value-added and processed products; • Adaptation to a highly variable environment; • For example, improved forecasts of commodity prices and longer-term trends in supply and demand, taking into account seasonal climate and ENSO forecasts

15. Australasia Adaptation Strategies • Indigenous resource management; • Insurance industry setting out an array of reactive and proactive options such as controlling claims through risk management to encourage disaster mitigation measures; • Risk management standard through a four-step process (risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation and risk treatment); and • Integrating sustainability issues; • For example, use of new sustainable production systems that simultaneously contribute to mitigation objectives. • Improving biosecurity, mechanisms to better manage risks; • Studies on long-term trends in forest nutritional status, indicators of sustainable forestry practices and investigation of risks from fire and wind;

16. Australasia Adaptation Strategies • Improving systems to measure and predict effects on carbon sequestration in planting forests. • Options for pests and diseases include bait spraying, sterile insect technique and exclusion; • For pastoral farming, stress management such as use of shade and sprinklers could be cost-effective but limited to threshold values of temperatures and humidity (Jones and Hennessy (2000)); and • Further selection for cattle lines with greater thermoregulatory control, although, may not be consistent with high production potential.

17. Thank You