Name: Yoisy Belén Castillo
Affiliation: Ministry of Environment of Panama
Journal Title: AFOLU and Adaptation class
Date: 03 August 2022


Today´s journey started with sad news: one of our colleagues tested positive for covid. Therefore, the morning was irregular, as the staff ensured all other students tested negative for covid. 
The class started with a virtual lesson from professor Takesi Enoki about the Methodology for GHG inventories and guidelines. It highlighted the importance of TACCC Principles: Transparency, Accuracy, Consistent, Comparable, and Completeness. However, Transparency is the most important of the five principles. As if we don´t have a transparent GHG inventory, another principle cannot be reached. 


Photo 1. View of class room during the virtual class about AFOLU sector


On the other side, the lecturer spoke about the institutional arrangements for GHG inventory development. He mentioned something that recalls the reality of many developing countries: GHG inventories development had been seen as a project. Therefore an AdHoc group is recruited for the inventory and National Communication or BUR preparation, and when this is finished, all knowledge, data, and information is gone. Therefore it is necessary to have institutional arrangements to continue through time for the development of future BTR and to comply with the Paris Agreement. 
After lunch, we had the class for AFOLU, where we reviewed how to estimate emissions from Livestock: enteric fermentation, manure management, and soil management, among others, except LULUCF (the representation of land). I hope we can continue with the last part, as it is one of the crucial sectors for my Country. 
About Livestock, she highlights the fact that it is important to use Tier 2 for key categories, and if this is not possible due to a lack of data, we could use regional data, with a well-defined justification. 


Photo 2. Special class about Adaptation


The journey finished with a special lecture about adaptation. This was a refreshing class as many students shared about the impacts of climate change in their countries. This led me to know how are other regions of the world handling climate solutions to increase resilience. This discussion makes me think there is much work on adaptation in Panama. 


Photo 3. View of my dinner


I think it was a variety of topics for today’s class, and I finished my day eating jjajangmyeon in my room.





Coordinator's comments:
It certainly was sad news considering that the infected trainee had to be quarantined for some days and thus was not able to be in the lecture room together. But I was relieved to know that his condition was not too bad that allowed him to join us virtually. It was also good that no one else was tested positive!
Since it is understood that the sector about which many of the trainees find most interesting and more important than other is AFOLU (and/or LULUCF), I hope Ms. Sekai's lecture gave you some ideas about estimation of emissions of this particular sector. Though there were some challenges which are constraints of a virtual class, it would be great if Ms. Sekai's extensive experiences and knowledge reached out to you all.
Having 8 hours of lectures, this day was quite tough, wasn't it? Seeing the photo of your small dinner of jjajangmyeon, I can say that you enjoyed Korean cuisine almost like the locals which is absolutely delightful.