Newsletter No.5 / August 2010

LWMEA Newsletter No. 5, August 2010

On 24 February 2010, the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) arranged the awareness raising activity at Jombueng Kindergarten School in Rachaburi Province. It was part of the Youth Awareness Raising Programme. DLD has set up this programme for the students living in the dense livestock farm areas who will, in the near future, play an important role in the mitigation of global warming from livestock farming. The program aimed to enhance knowledge and awareness of the students on the mitigation of greenhouse gas emission from livestock farming, and to lessen global warming crisis efficiently, effectively, and sustainably. Varieties of the activities were presented to students in one and a half hour.

The program has been implemented in 8 schools in 4 provinces (Cholburi, Rachaburi, Chachengsao, Nakorn pratom) for 521 students.

With the support from PHRD grant, DLD arranged the training on “Livestock and Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation Strategy and Implementation in Thailand” on 20-21 and 27-28 April 2010 in Bangkok and Chiang Mai respectively.

The training agenda covered necessary information on climate change and livestock sector. It included the current global and Thailand situation on GHG emission from the agriculture and livestock sectors. Mitigating strategies used for the reduction of GHG emission from livestock section were presented, i.e., carbon footprint, methane reduction from enteric fermentation, small-scale biogas digester, the biogas system under “Petchaboon Model” (sufficiency economy model), CDM and other tools. The impacts of international convention, commitment and action plan on climate change to Thailand, and the UNFCCC 1.3.2 program used for estimating National GHG Inventory (NGI) were shown.

Seventy DLD officers from central and northern regions were trained to enhance their understanding on livestock and global warming situation. DLD also plans to set up the standard for carbon footprint for livestock products in Thailand.

LWMEA posters were presented at the World Water Day exhibition which was arranged at the UNESCAP, Bangkok.

The event was organized jointly by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). A panel discussion on Challenges and Trends on Clean Water for a Healthy World in Asia was arranged by focusing on opportunities for industries, governments and international organizations as well as civil society to work together to improve the quality of water for a better living environment. 

World Water Day 2010 observance included an exhibition featuring information on market solutions and other initiatives to improve water quality. The exhibition aimed to encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals in Asia-Pacific to engage in proactively addressing water quality in pollution prevention, particularly in river clean up and rehabilitation.

During 12-14 May 2010, China PMO conducted the technical training on livestock waste management and utilization (biogas technology) of the medium and large farms. The objectives are to learn the successful experiences and the waste treatment technology of the demonstration sites, to promote the GEF Granted Livestock Waste Management Asia Project to the whole Province.

Roughly 100 participants from the agriculture bureaus from the county and the city attended this training.

In June 2010, the construction of one cover lagoon system with the volume of 2400 m3 in Hanoi has been completed and is in operation. The system contributes to the remarkable improvement of the environment in Thanh Hung farm and the surrounding area. The system also provides gas for cooking for the farmers.

At the moment, 6 demonstration systems with different technologies are under construction in Vietnam, including a modified up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket –UASB, volume of 500 m3 in Hanoi.

The third Cost of Compliance Simulation Model (CoSiMo) mission visited Thailand, China and Vietnam during 5-14 July 2010. The mission aimed to present the results from the reports of the national counterparts on the description of the farm by region, to present the future outlook of the pig farms by size for the year 2020, to find comments on environmental measures/policy options on the pig farms for short, medium and long term, and to find comments on a possible future use of CoSiMo as a monitoring and policy formulation decision support tool.

Description of the pig farms by region including farm size and structure, pig farm economics were presented by Dr Backus, a lead CoSiMo consultant, followed by the informative and productive discussion of the PMO, policy experts and policy officers on the waste management practices in each country in 2010, costs of alternative waste management practices, expected pig industry size and structure in 2020, expected waste management practices in 2020. As a result, the policy recommendations for each country were identified. 

The complete version of CoSiMo will be presented to the PMO and all stakeholders in the international conference.

On Tuesday 3 August 2010, Mr Preecha Prasertsomboon, the Director General of the Department of Livestock Development (DLD), together with the Vice Governor of Rachaburi Province, DLD officers from District and Sub-district offices and Pollution Control Department (PCD) officers visited Kachana Hybrid farm, one of the project demonstration farms in Rachaburi. The project counterparts including the World Bank, FAO, Advance Energy Plus Co. Ltd. also joined the event.

A briefing meeting was arranged at the farm to present the progress of the project implementation in Thailand, followed by the opening ceremony of the CDP (Channel Digester Plus) system board at the farm.

The DG, the Vice Governor and other government officers were interested in the treatment system and its operation, also the utilization of liquid and solid waste by using biogas, CDM, crop land application, and electricity generation, and other methodologies.

The DG also gave an interview with local/national reporters on the project activities and implementation.