Asian Climate Training (ACT) Workshop

Spiritual forces, forecasters, farmers and media darlings … not the usual participants you would expect at a training course on Applying Climate Information for the Southeast Asian Region. These characters were part of the Forecast Game, a role-playing exercise developed for the Asian Climate Training (ACT) Workshop held from 7-18 May 2002 in Bangkok. ACT was co-organized by ADPC and the Thai Meteorological Department, in association with the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) and the East-West Center.

The workshop brought together 30 people from the ten ASEAN countries to find new ways to use climate information and forecasts in decision-making. This was perhaps the first gathering in Asia of climate information “producers” (meteorologists and climatologists) and “users” (people from climate-affected sectors, including agriculturalists and water resources managers).

The course’s first few days involved an intense immersion into global climate processes, climate variability, and their effects on the region’s weather systems. The meteorologists gave brief presentations on their national forecasts for the upcoming summer monsoon season. This provided insights into the variety of methods used around the region for predicting the weather, which led into lectures and discussions on current and emerging forecasting capabilities.

One highlight of the workshop was the need for effective communication of climate information to make it understood and usable, and to engage the public through the use of media. This was effectively brought out in a special presentation on “Preparing for El Niño: A Climate Affairs Challenge” by Dr Michael Glantz. The Forecast Game illustrated the importance of clear communication, dialogue between agencies, and the possibilities for reducing vulnerability when forecasts go wrong. In the course’s final module, participants worked in country teams to look at the economic value of climate information and then identified various issues where it would improve decision-making.

The ACT Workshop has sparked other national workshops to link climate information producers and users in Indonesia and the Philippines. ADPC plans to continue ACT around the region, and to produce a manual based on the ideas generated during the workshops. Organizers will also broaden the scope to include media, NGOs and other groups that use climate information. Be on the lookout for interesting new characters in the Forecast Game … perhaps wise old university professors or an environmental activist dressed as a sea turtle?

For more information on ACT and other climate activities at ADPC, log on to www.adpc.ait.ac.th/ece/ece.html