Events: 3rd APAN Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum organized by APAN on 18-20 Mar 2013

3rd APAN Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum

Welcome to the 3rd Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum

The 3rd Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum will be held from 18th - 20th March 2013 in Republic of Korea. The main theme of the forum will continue to be on “Mainstreaming Adaptation into Development” with a focus on key selected topics. The Forum is hosted by the Korea Environment Institute (KEI) in association with the Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change (KACCC). The co-organisers are the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Institute for Global Environment Strategies (IGES), the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP), and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). 

Successful adaptation to a changing climate needs sensible strategies that guide and learn from actions. The 3rd Adaptation Forum will assist decision-makers at all levels of government, in business and communities be more strategic and effective in addressing the challenges of development in a changing climate.

 Strategies are guides to action important for governments, organizations and communities to design appropriate policies and plans as well as build capacities to adapt. Climate change in some situations demands new strategies – for example for dealing with uncertainties and change – but must also draw on experiences and insights from past strategies in development. 

 The forum will provide excellent opportunities for a range of actors working in different sectors and systems to share their knowledge about successes, and failures, to effectively adapt to climate. The needs and interests of critical and neglected groups will be highlighted alongside the need for improving knowledge management.

 The mixture of plenary and panel discussions as well as diverse side-events will provide participants with an outstanding opportunity to interact and learn about the latest ideas and practices in mainstreaming adaptation.  The key outcome of the 3rd Forum will be improved adaptation strategies and actions.

Thematic focus

 The 3rd Adaptation Forum will be organized around the following four themes:

• Adaptation strategies: What strategies governments, organizations and communities adopting to deal with a variable and changing climate? Are they likely to be successful? Are they sufficient? 
• Critical and neglected groups: What are governments, organizations and communities doing to better engage critical, but neglected, actors in adaptation plans and actions? 
• Adaptation in sectors and systems:  How are stakeholders in different sectors and systems adapting to a changing climate?  What actions have they taken? What has worked, what has not?
• Knowledge management for adaptation: How can better use be made of existing knowledge to support adaptation efforts? How can learning from success and failure become more systematic?

Participating in the 3rd Adaptation Forum

There are many ways to participate in the forum: as a speaker, as a booth holder in the market place, as an attentive and questioning member of the audience, and by sharing your views in a briefing note.

Speakers

As in previous events speakers in parallel panels will be a mixture of invited speakers identified by the organizers of individual panels and the Forum, and a selection of individuals drawn from the open call for speakers.

To express your interest in being a speaker in a panel register and submit a ‘briefing note’ summarizing in 200-500 words the key points of your proposed presentation. You may include 1 figure or table in your briefing note.  Identify which panel your contribution fits most closely. 

See information below on Session Formats for guidance on how to prepare your talk.

Listeners and writers

Individuals who would like to participate in the event but do not wish to make a formal presentation in a panel are also encouraged to contribute a briefing note.   All briefing notes will be reviewed and as long as are appropriate to themes of conference, be included in an electronic document for distribution to all participants. This is a good way to tell others about your work and interests in adaptation.

Session organizers

Organizations interested in sponsoring and taking the lead in organizing a particular panel session should approach the organizers.  The titles and guiding questions in the current draft of the programme are to be intended as a guide and can be adjusted in negotiation with the overall conference organizers.

Plenary and Parallel Panel Sessions 

Plenary sessions will typically have 3 or 4 speakers and parallel panels 4 or 5 speakers. All sessions are intended to be interactive.

A chairperson will be assigned and be responsible for ensuring individual speakers stick to allocated times, facilitating discussion among speakers, and coordinating questions and comments from the floor.   

For those sessions organized as roundtables, power-point slides by individual speakers will not be allowed.  Opening and subsequent comments by each speaker should not exceed 5 minutes. Each speaker should expect to be given an opportunity to speak three or more times.

For those sessions organized as conventional panels individual speakers should not have more than 10 slides maximum and should not speak for more than 15 minutes.

Adaptation market place

As in previous forums there will be space in the conference venues for interested groups to set up booths to share information about their activities. The adaptation market place is a very good place for networking and talking in more detail with others that share similar interests and issues.

To express interest in booth space in the market you will soon be able to upload a briefing note summarizing the intended purpose of your booth.

Multiple roles

An individual person, once registered, can take on several roles in the conference. For example, you can be an invited speaker, post one briefing note about your talk and another for a panel of interest, and a third describing your organization's booth in the market place. But make sure you clearly indicate on the registration and upload page on the website what each submission is for!

We look forward to your active participation in the 3rd Adaptation Forum.

For any inquiries, please contact the Forum 2013 Secretariat atinfo@asiapacificadapt.net 

For more information: http://www.asiapacificadapt.net/adaptationforum2013/