Welcome to SEARCA Knowledge Center on Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management in Southeast Asia (KC3)

Southeast Asia

Published on 21 February 2019
But a recent study published in the scientific journal Conservation Letters spells new hope for Borneo’s forests. Using a data set spanning nearly two decades, researchers from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) found that the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo has actually slowed since 2012. Using satellite imagery, the researchers measured total forest loss, how much plantation…
Published on 30 January 2019
“The main reason approximately 32 million hectares [320,000 square kilometers, or 123,550 square miles] of mangroves globally have been brought down to 15 million hectares [150,000 square kilometers, or 57,900 square miles] is land use change,” Böer said. This decline has occurred over the last 50 years. “That includes agricultural development, that includes the establishment of shrimp farms and other coastal development projects.” According…
Published on 15 October 2018
Kuala Lumpur — The world’s largest collection of rice varieties has secured indefinite funding in what officials say will be crucial for the development of seeds resilient to the effects of climate change. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will sign an agreement with Bonn-based non-profit the Crop Trust on Tuesday in Singapore to secure $1.4m a year to fund IRRI’s rice gene bank…
Published on 4 July 2018
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has just approved a grant of $15 million for the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME) project, led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The project aims to promote sustainable fishing, reduce marine pollution and improve the lives of approximately 400 million people who live along its coasts. This second phase of the project in the world’s…
Published on 3 July 2018
Zhenzhong Zeng, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and the lead author of a July 2 article describing the findings in Nature Geoscience, said the researchers used a combination of satellite data and computational algorithms to reach their conclusions. The report shows a loss of 29.3 million hectares of forest (roughly 113,000 square miles or about twice the size of New York State) between 2000…
Published on 25 June 2018
Extreme weather has pushed intense storms and floods further inland because of rising seas levels, be it in Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam, and produced deadlier heatwaves like the recent ones in China and India—and the dry spells in 2014 and 2015 that threatened Singapore’s reservoir levels. Southeast Asia has built capabilities and infrastructure for disaster management over the years. But climate change has raised the…
Published on 13 June 2018
Found in coastal waters all over the world, apart from at the poles, seagrasses play a part in mitigating climate change by burying carbon under the seabed for up to thousands of years. Such carbon, stored in coastal ecosystems like seagrass meadows, is often referred to as blue carbon. And this potent ability to mitigate climate change is helping to drive conservation efforts for seagrass…
Published on 24 May 2018
The change could be particularly dire in southeast Asia where rice is a major part of the daily diet, said the report in the journal Science Advances. "We are showing that global warming, climate change and particularly greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide -- can have an impact on the nutrient content of plants we eat," said co-author Adam Drewnowski, a professor of epidemiology at the…
Published on 24 May 2018
One of these was Leyte’s Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC), which had not been built to withstand a signal number 4 typhoon, the strongest storm category according to the Philippines’ storm ranking. Learning from that experience, the EVRMC is switching to solar power to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that it will continue to have a supply of much-needed electricity…
Published on 27 February 2018
The multi-tranche Sustainability Bond, arranged by BNP Paribas (BNPP) and issued by TLFF I Pte Ltd, will fund PT Royal Lestari Utama (RLU), an Indonesian joint venture between France's Michelin and Indonesia's Barito Pacific Group for climate-smart, wildlife friendly, socially inclusive production of natural rubber in Jambi, Sumatra and East Kalimantan provinces. This is the first corporate sustainability bond in Asia and the first sustainability…
Published on 16 January 2018
Taking their haul back to the family yard, they would spend hours separating the glass bottles, aluminum cans, discarded newspapers, and metal. Seah now employs 350 people to help him run Heng Hiap Industries, one of Malaysia’s top five plastic recycling businesses which process about 40,000 tonnes of waste per year from both domestic and overseas suppliers. “Thirty-five years ago, it was just scavenging -…
Published on 12 January 2018
Mr. Radha Mohan Singh was brought to a close the fourth ministerial meeting between India and the ASEAN union of Southeast Asian countries. The meeting, which focussed on agriculture and forestry, concluded with a commitment on both sides to prioritize projects that take early action on climate change. A joint statement after the summit stated: “we underscore the importance of addressing climate change as it…
Published on 14 September 2017
Read article here: https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2017/09/14/seeking-better-solution-countries-need-to-conquer-environmental-degradation-at-all-levels-says-undp/ Source: The Star | 14 September 2017
Published on 7 September 2017
“With the conservation and management strategies that our respective countries are implementing, I encourage convergence of our research and development efforts for sustainable region-wide mangrove conservation,” Cimatu said in his keynote address at the 2nd Asean Mangrove Congress held in Manila from September 5 to 7. Cimatu said that convergence in mangrove research and development is the key to protecting the region against the devastating…
Published on 21 August 2017
The Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA) signed between the two entities gives ADB access to a new funding source to strengthen climate mitigation and adaptation efforts in Asia and the Pacific. GCF works exclusively with accredited entities to support climate mitigation and adaptation projects and programs. The AMA cements ADB’s accreditation which was approved in March 2015. This enables the multilateral development bank…
Published on 11 August 2017
The ASEAN Biodiversity Heroes is a program designed to recognize outstanding individuals from the ASEAN region who have contributed significantly to biodiversity conservation and advocacy efforts in their respective countries. From an indigenous community leader who is protecting Papua’s forest to a national scientist who is championing coastal resources management, the inaugural ASEAN Biodiversity Heroes honors inspirational and valiant individuals who have risen to the…
Published on 7 August 2017
Energy demand is set to double this century, with the world’s population reaching 11 billion, up from 7.5 billion today. As the world changes, so will the energy system that powers it, driven by the need to reduce carbon emissions and — crucially for Asia — tackle air pollution that blights so many lives. Coal is a big contributor to that air pollution. This can…
Published on 6 August 2017
Read the article here: https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/the-star-says/2017/08/06/do-your-part-to-weather-effects-of-climate-change-too/ Source: The Star Online | 6 August 2017
Published on 27 July 2017
A CDKN report titled, ‘10 propositions for success: Integrating international climate change commitments into national development planning,’ outlines ways to support the successful integration of NDCs into national development planning. The CDKN report recommends that NDCs be consistent with national development policies, and have broad national support and political backing. The paper offers a set of ten propositions, recommending that, inter alia, NDCs…
Page 1 of 6