My Editorial Report On The Report Of The 41st Meeting Of The Asean Ministers On Agriculture & Forestry, 41st AMAF

You are not going to get this view anywhere from Asean except the Philippines!

I am referring to the report dated 15 October 2019 titled "The Forty First Meeting Of The Asean Ministers On Agriculture And Forestry (The 41^st AMAF) – Joint Press Statement" issued from Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. (image from Facebook sharing of PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar handshaking with Crown Prince of Brunei)

The editing was Very Good – but not Excellent! For instance, this:

We expressed satisfaction on the progress made in the implementation of (the) Strategic Plan of Food Agriculture and Forestry (SP-FAF) 2016-2025, including the achievement of key deliverables in 2019.

The report does notstate "progress made" – not even a single sentence. 2016-2025: How much of that plan has been achieved? Nothing said.

"We expressed satisfaction… including the achievement of key deliverables in 2019." So, what are those "key deliverables"? If you cannot give us just 1 of those, how can we believe you?

About climate change:

We noted the implementation of (the) Multi Sectoral Framework on Climate Change… and encouraged close coordination and collaboration among different sectoral bodies and partners to address adaptation and mitigation of climate change through sustainable, efficient and effective use of land, forest, water and aquatic resources.

That is a convoluted statement: "To address adaptation and mitigation of climate change through sustainable…" In climate change, you do not lump "adaptation" together with "mitigation" – you adaptto the climate changes such as by planting a drought-resistant variety of rice; you mitigate the adverse effects on the livelihoods of poor farmers such as by offering them soft loans payable in 8 years. To adapt is to settle for the fact; to mitigate is to soften the effect.

We underscored the importance of having an operational framework for information sharing and capacity building among ASEAN Member States in combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and adopted the Concept Proposal for the Establishment of ASEAN Network for Combating IUU Fishing (AN-IUU).

What was the main idea in that concept proposal? Not reported. That proposal has a long way to go – despite the fact that it was needed yesterday!

We reiterated the importance of enhancing sustainable forest management (SFM) in ASEAN and noted the growing concern to further tackle issues on wildlife trafficking that has impact on biodiversity and SFM. In this regard, we adopted the ASEAN Guidelines for Detecting and Preventing Wildlife Trafficking and ASEAN Voluntary Code of Conduct on Imports for Forest and Timber Companies.

I have never seen an official or a news report on wildlife trafficking in the Philippines, so wake up, Department of Environment & Natural Resources! About imports for forest products, we all know that Philippine forests have now very little to contribute – our forests are gone!

We noted the on-going efforts of strengthening the sectoral collaboration on conservation agriculture and sustainable soil management initiatives to ensure the sustainability of agroecological (systems) in the ASEAN region.

The report played safe. Not very helpful!@517