People engagement needed

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Cynthia Villar has raised the need to engage the people living in vulnerable areas in the government’s environmental programs to equip them in responding to climate change.

In a speech at Deltas in Times of Climate Change international conference last September in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Villar batted for the need to create environmental projects that respond to threats of climate change.

“Our experience has shown us that for environmental projects to be sustainable, it should be beneficial to poor citizens, by supplementing their livelihood among others,” she added.

Villar related how the Las Piñas River Rehabilitation Program has succeeded in cleaning up and rehabilitating the river and created livelihood enterprises.

“The process of changing people’s mindsets and instilling discipline was a long and tedious one for us,” she said.

“At first, the residents were uncooperative. So I thought that the only way to make them cooperate is to make them a stakeholder in the undertaking. Community involvement, local stakeholder engagement, capacity-building exercises, public-private cooperation are really critical factors in ensuring the success of any environmental program,” Villar added.

The project provided jobs and livelihood to more than 500 poor families in the city. Over 500 similar projects were also put up in other parts of the country. The project bested 38 countries and won the United Nations Water for Life Best Water Management Practices in Spain in 2011. 

Citing reports, Villar said the Philippines is considered and often listed as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.

A recent United Nations report identified the country as the third most at risk from climate change in the world, ranked behind the South Pacific island nations of Vanuatu (population 255,000) and Tonga (population 105,000).