APEC Climate Center strengthens its efforts to enhance Vanuatu's agricultural climate resilience APEC Climate Center, the Vanuatu government, and its local communities collaborate to bolster climate cooperation and resilience - The APEC Climate Center (APCC) tried to strengthen collaboration with Vanuatu to realize sustainable climate adaptation in its agricultural sector. Both Dr. Jong Ahn Chun and Dr. Seongkyu Lee, APCC's Research Fellows, disclosed that they held a "Vanuatu Government-Community Climate Cooperation Partner Relations and Strengthening Climate Resilience Cooperation Conference" with high-level officials and key stakeholders in the local government from the 13th to the 25th of last month during their visit to the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Currently, Pacific island nations in the South Pacific are significantly affected by climate change impacts such as rising sea levels, typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis. their land is low-lying areas with elevations less than 5 meters above sea level. Pacific island nations like Vanuatu primarily rely on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, and tourism for food and income security. Consequently, the extreme climate conditions caused by climate change inflict more severe damage to these regions than others. As part of the United Nations Green Climate Fund (GCF) support project, APCC implemented the "Vanuatu Climate Change Adaptation Capacity Enhancement through Climate Information Services Development Project" from 2018 to 2023. In this project, APCC has been responsible for enhancing the management capacity for agricultural risks that may arise from climate change and variability using climate prediction information. To achieve sustainable climate adaptation in Vanuatu's agricultural sector, APCC developed the "Van-KIRAP tailOred System of Climate Services for AgRiculture (OSCAR) System" and successfully transferred it to the Vanuatu government in August 2023. APCC has also conducted workshops and education programs to nurture the human resources of local institutions in Vanuatu for the continuous operation and management of OSCAR in the local agricultural field. With the successful utilization of OSCAR and significant interest from the local community, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Vanuatu government have requested joint implementation of the follow-up project (Van-KIRAP-II) for Vanuatu Climate Information Services Development with APCC. SPREP, headquartered in Apia, Samoa, is an international organization that proposed the "Vanuatu Climate Information Services Development (Van-KIRAP)" project as a recipient of Green Climate Fund (GCF) support. It serves as the implementing agency for the entire process of managing GCF-supported projects until completion. During this visit, 2 APCC researchers engaged in discussions with high-level officials including the Minister of Climate Change and Minister of Agriculture of the Vanuatu government, to discuss specific support and cooperation measures required for the future implementation of the follow-up project (Van-KIRAP-II). Moreover, they facilitated discussions with local practitioners on the selection of pilot villages and various crop experiments for the follow-up project (Van-KIRAP-II). They fostered closer partner relations with the Vanuatu government and local communities to enhance climate cooperation. APCC's Executive Director Do-Shick Shin stated, "Building upon the valuable experience and knowledge gained from the previous Green Climate Fund (GCF) supported project targeting Vanuatu in the South Pacific, APCC plans to expand tailored climate information service development projects for the Pacific island nations."