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

Southeast Asia

Published on 15 August 2020 by Shiloh Fetzek and Dennis McGinn
Climate change is likely to alter the local physical and strategic environment profoundly, and potentially catastrophically. This week the ASEAN Joint Task Force on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) will meet via video conference, with the COVID-19 pandemic escalating just as some countries in the disaster-prone Indo-Asia Pacific enter their cyclone, drought, heatwave, or monsoon seasons. The overlaying of the pandemic with existing complex…
Published on 21 January 2020 Southeast Asia
When the normally murky brown Mekong River turned a brilliant blue late last year, villagers in northeastern Thailand were surprised. Then, this week, unusually large patches of green algae appeared, clogging up nets and making it almost impossible to fish. Both the Mekong's strange color and the algae have heightened worries about the health of the river that more than 60 million people in Southeast…
Published on 14 October 2019
The consequences of climate change are getting worse as each day passes. From shrinking ice caps to drawn-out drought seasons, it seems that every country across the globe has experienced some sort of impact from the drastic changes in weather patterns. And one of climate change’s victims, Southeast Asia’s trans-boundary river, the Mekong River is in danger. In full: https://sea.mashable.com/science/6570/climate-change-is-causing-dire-consequences-for-the-greater-mekong-region
Published on 20 September 2019 by Eireene Jairee Gomez
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will establish a regional network that will explore the vast potential of bamboo for environmental sustainability and economic resiliency amid worsening climate change. Bamboo could also provide an excellent source of livelihood for organized smallholder farmers. This was the major development after the first-ever Asean Bamboo Congress held in Iloilo City earlier this month. The five-day event brought…
Published on 19 September 2019 by Preeti Jha
A closer look at a key component of the region’s fight against the climate crisis. Fires are once again raging through forests in Indonesia, shrouding cities as far as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in thick smog. Across the globe, the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is also ablaze. The flames have raised fresh alarm over the loss of vital frontiers in the battle against the…
Published on 25 July 2019
The heads of governments of the 10 Asean member-states have agreed to promote cooperation and partnerships within the region and with external partners in order to achieve sustainability, conservation, peace, economic growth and other dimensions of Asean Community-building. The agreement was expressed in the Asean leaders’ vision statement on partnership for sustainability, which was adopted during the recent 34th Asean Summit held in Bangkok, Thailand.…
Published on 22 July 2019
Asian Development Bank says ASEAN needs to "reorient spending" to more sustainable projects, as extreme weather poses threat to region’s development. Over the next five years, ASEAN will need US$157 billion in annual infrastructure investment, but projects need to be “climate-proofed” to mitigate the region’s vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Due to Southeast Asia’s geographical diversity…
Published on 26 June 2019
Environmental groups are calling strongly for national leaders to stop fast rising shipments of plastic and electronic waste to the region. Southeast Asian civil society groups are calling on regional leaders to ban immediately the dumping of foreign plastic and electronic waste in the region. The appeal was made at a press conference in Bangkok as officials prepare to host the 34th Association of Southeast…
Published on 18 June 2019 by Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz
Man-made pollution continues to be a major threat to the survival of biodiversity and ecosystems across the ASEAN region, according to the Philippines-based ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB). Man-made pollution continues to be a major threat to the survival of biodiversity and ecosystems across the ASEAN region, according to the Philippines-based ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB). The celebration of the World Environment Day on June…
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…
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