Two Philippine-based international agencies co-organized a multisectoral workshop on biodiversity in food and agriculture in Thailand.
The Multisectoral Workshop on Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Food and Agriculture was held by Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) in Amari Watergate in Bangkok last week.
It was cohosted by Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
The workshop provided a platform for the environment and agriculture sectors in the ASEAN community to discuss and develop a common understanding of agrobiodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
It also intended to identify and define possible areas of collaboration and supportive processes among the relevant ASEAN sectoral bodies and development partners toward mainstreaming biodiversity in the agriculture sector.
Among the expected outputs of the workshop is a pilot project in agrobiodiversity that includes the recommended elements and structure of a multi- and cross-sectoral coordination mechanism among and between the relevant ASEAN bodies for mainstreaming, conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in the ASEAN region.
Mainstreaming agrobiodiversity is the first joint thematic initiative of ACB and SEARCA, which proposes to facilitate intersectoral discussion toward a common understanding of conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in the ASEAN.
The workshop was the second collaboration of SEARCA and ACB under an agreement to pursue common objectives in biodiversity and agriculture signed in July 2016. The first major activity of this cooperation was a regional workshop on mainstreaming biodiversity in agriculture for sustainable development and food security in Southeast Asia, held in September 2017 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Participants in the recent workshop were representatives of the environment and agriculture ministries of ASEAN member-states, ASEAN sectoral bodies, the ASEAN Secretariat, development partners, and networks from the education and research sectors.