Climate change initiative pushed

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines  – A government commission and Southeast Asian center here have begun exploring areas of cooperation, particularly on climate change (CC).

Knowledge management was initially identified as an area in which the Climate Change Commission (CCC) and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO SEARCA) could explore possible collaboration.

SEARCA is one of the 20 “centers of excellence” of SEAMEO, an inter-government treaty body founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science, and culture. The center is hosted by the Philippine government on the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus.

OCC Commissioner Naderev Saño visited SEARCA recently and discussed with Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. activities that they could jointly pursue.

These include the SEARCA Knowledge Center on Climate Change (KC3), the European Union (EU)-supported Focused-Food Production Assistance to Vulnerable Sectors (FPAVAS) project, and the Building Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change for Selected Southeast Asian Countries: Vulnerability Assessment and Economic Analysis of Adaptation project led by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA).

KC3 is a digital portal that provides access to knowledge resources, including news, images, and other materials, on CC adaptation in agriculture and natural resources in Southeast Asian (EEPSEA).

Beyond providing a platform for knowledge sharing through its website (www.climatechange.searca.org), KC3 also looks to publish knowledge briefs based on CC researches as part of its Agricultural and Development Notes on Climate Change Adaptation (AND-CCA), as well as participate in co-publication arrangements for manuals or casebooks of knowledge events on CC adaptation and mitigation.

SEARCA is also the lead institution for the Philippines in the EEPSEA capacity-building project that involves Vietnam and Cambodia. The project will undertake vulnerability measurement and mapping, gender ethnographics of vulnerability, and economic analysis of adaptation.

Laguna has been selected as the project site in the Philippines.

The EU-FPAVAS project’s climate change component has completed the Geographical Information System (GIS)-aided identification of vulnerabilities in the six provinces covered by the project: Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Misamis Occidental, and Misamis Oriental.

The project is now mainstreaming climate change in the planning process of the local government units (LGUs).

Commending SEARCA for its work with the LGUs, Saño said that the six provinces are now well ahead of the rest of the country and could provide mentoring to the other provinces that are yet to craft their CC action plans in compliance with the Climate Change Act of 2009.

“I can only be glad to hear this information because it gives us (in the Commission) comfort to know that there is something already happening on the ground,” he said.