The roundtable aimed to bring relevant, multisector agricultural and rural development partners together to highlight and exchange experiences, challenges, best practices, strategic directions, and opportunities to advance carbon farming in agricultural and rural development (ARD). This should lead to carbon credit and markets, particularly in agriculture, toward elevating the quality of life of farmers and farming families in SEA.
Specifically, the roundtable served as a platform to: 1. consolidate the status, gaps, and opportunities of carbon farming leading to carbon credit and market in agriculture in SEA by showcasing selected initiatives, current policies and guidelines, financial schemes and investments, strategic lessons from institutional experiences, available data, technologies, and approaches both in the science and practice of climate resilient agriculture in the region in the past five years; 2. identify opportunities to collaborate on carbon farming leading to carbon credit and markets in SEA for a forward-looking and shared vision of a transformative CRA in the region; and 3. organize the Carbon Farming Consortium to foster regional cooperation and commitment to promote carbon farming in agriculture in SEA.
The roundtable brought together nearly 600 participants online and onsite from the government, academe, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, and private sector from SEA, USA, and Europe. They explored, discussed, and delved into the vast potential of carbon farming and its transformative impact on the food and agricultural systems’ response to climate change.