Apia Program Associate for the FAO Sub-Regional Office, Mr. Richard Crichton talks climate change with Year 13 students at Samoa College

A representative from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations spoke to students at Samoa College earlier this week about climate change and what it means for Small Island Developing States.  The geography students from Year 13 are studying climate change and its implications as part of their curriculum.

Apia Program Associate for the FAO Sub-Regional Office, Mr. Richard Crichton spoke on the work of FAO  and addressed the issue of climate change especially in food security and poverty reduction.

“ Rising ocean temperatures and acidification will lead to reduced biodiversity, particularly around coral reefs”, said Mr Crichton. “Changes in temperature and precipitation will also have significant implications for both forestry and agriculture.”

Mr Crichton highlighted that climate change was one of the central themes at the SIDS Conference recently held in Samoa. He also encouraged the students to learn more about climate change not only from a scientific point of view but how it relates to their studies and a possible future career.

For its part, FAO welcomes the commitments being made to address climate change. FAO can support these commitments as part of its capacity-building projects at country level.

FAO has five main strategic objectives:

• Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition,
• Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable,
• Reduce rural poverty,
• Enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems,
• Increase the resilience of livelihood from disasters.

One valuable approach  called ‘climate-smart agriculture ‘aims to adjust farming practices to make them more adaptive and resilient to environmental pressures, while at the same time decreasing farming's own impacts on the environment.

Climate-smart agriculture also helps farming communities adapt to climate change while contributing to mitigation efforts by adopting agriculture smart practices, developing national policies, improving institutions and financing mobilisation.

"FAO is ready to work with its partners to successfully address the impacts of climate change on food security. This is a necessary step to a hunger free world and sustainable future."