SEARICE RECOMMENDATIONS on BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

SEARICE RECOMMENDATIONS on BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
13th Meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
18 February – 22 February, 2008, Rome, Italy


The SOUTHEAST ASIA REGIONAL INITIATIVES FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT (SEARICE), a regional Non-governmental Organization working with farmers and farming communities in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR and Bhutan, working on the promotion and strengthening of farmer-led conservation and sustainable utilization of agro-biodiversity at the field level and in local and national policy actions, welcomes the report on Biodiversity and Climate Change identifying options for mutually supportive activities for the Secretariats of the Rio Conventions and for parties and relevant organizations.

SEARICE raises the following observations and recommendations that the Parties present should consider to recommend that the Conference of the Parties to the Convenion on Biological Diversity at its ninth meeting:

1. On Ocean Nourishment and Fertilization, SEARICE welcomes and commends interventions from various Parties to the 13th Meeting of the SBSTTA which have expressed grave concern on ocean nourishment and geo-engineering, by taking a stand in recommending the adoption of precautionary approach measures and the establishment of an Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Working Group on this.

We likewise put emphasis to the concerns raised during the London Convention on Marine Dumping, where Parties to that Convention have already expressed grave concern over the ecological risks of ocean fertilization and expressed the need for oversight on these technologies due to their large-scale impact on the environment, and, in addition, on its potential impact on local communities that rely on resources in target areas of these technologies.

2. SEARICE also recommends for the Parties to take the precautionary approach on large-scale climate-change mitigation activities and endeavors, especially large-scale agrofuels production, that will in large part compromise health, food security, food safety, and the agricultural biodiversity being conserved and utilized sustainably by farmers, local communites and indigenous peoples.

3. It is important that Parties recommend engagement with and active involvement of farmers, local communities and indigenous peoples on concerns regarding climate change, in consideration of the crucial role that they play on adaptation and adaptability given their dynamic practices of conserving, adapting, and enhancing in-situ agro-biodiversity, which create resiliency in withstanding impacts of climate change.

In addition, the Parties, in line with a stronger collaboration with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), should be encouraged to invite researches highlighting and involving local communities adaptation mechanisms and measures, which can be assessed and included in mainstreaming adaptive management systems for climate change. Suggested recommendations (particularly paragraphs 7 and 8 of Document No. UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/137) should thus include farmers, local communities and indigenous peoples, in recognition of their rights to participation in all these processes.