2 monographs on climate change in Philippines published

MANILA, Philippines - Two monographs on climate change rolled off the press recently.

“Climate Change Vulnerability Mapping of Selected Municipalities in Laguna, Philippines” and “Focus on Vulnerability: Gender, Climate Change and Disaster” were published by the Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture based in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). They are available as free copies or downloadable from the SEARCA website (www.searca.org).

The volumes constituted the Philippine component of the projects titled “Building Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change (IDRC)” of Canada. SEARCA, headed by Gil C. Saguiguit Jr., implemented the project in cooperation with IDRC’s Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia.

The monograph on Laguna towns analyzes the vulnerabilities of these communities in terms of geographic location, gender, ethnicity and demographic, socio-cultural and political economic variables. It promoted these as maps showing the vulnerability of the towns based on their exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to climate change-related risks and hazards.

The report was written by Bessie Burgos of SEARCA and engineer Vicente Ballaran Jr., Maria Emilinda Mendoza, Jaime Kim Bayani-Arias, and Rowena Dorado, all of UPLB.

The other monograph, written by Mendoza, highlights the social and gender dimension of the IDRC-funded study. It documents how men and women are differently affected by climate change and other related hazards and discusses women’s role in climate change adaptation.