Philippines joins multi-country initiative on climate strategies

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has joined a multi-country initiative aimed at strengthening the capacities of governments to plan, fund and operationalize climate response strategies.

Initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) program focuses on strategic climate risk management and being implemented in eight countries including the Philippines, Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Uganda, Uruguay, Vietnam and Zambia.

“Climate change is no longer a distant threat. The strong typhoons and droughts we have experienced in recent years have given us a preview of the severe implications it will continue to have on the agriculture sector and the related issues of national interest such as food security, economic growth and the eradication of rural poverty,” FAO Representative in the Philippines José Luis Fernández said.

In developing countries such as the Philippines, the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors bear over 20 percent of the economic impact caused by climate-related disasters.

In fact, the Philippines ranks third in the 2015 World Risk Index of the United Nations University for Environment and Human Security, which evaluates the risk of 171 countries to natural hazards.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) emphasized that how well the agriculture sector performs in terms of contributing to the economy will be strongly linked to the amount of investment put into national climate change adaptation.

“We acknowledge that implementing climate adaptation measures, especially those that will entail systemic changes, may require external support in addition to what our national budget can cover. We will also explore such options under the NAP-Ag program, “ DA Climate Change Office director Alicia Ilaga said.

The four-year program aims to accelerate the uptake of medium- and long-term risk reduction practices across the policy level, the agriculture industry and down to farming and fishing communities.

It involves technical assistance in re-evaluating and recalibrating current agricultural development strategies and budgeting processes with the objective of minimizing exposure to and losses from climate change risks.

FAO will also expand efforts to map vulnerability to food insecurity, promote risk-reduction mechanisms in agricultural and coastal communities, and provide policy guidance in mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the country’s agriculture plan.