Mainstreaming Urban Agriculture for Climate Change Adaptation in the Philippines: A Policy Guidebook

The Philippines is one of the most climate change-vulnerable countries. Sea level rise, water variability, rain-induced flooding, and landslides are among the observed impacts across municipalities and cities in the country. Cities and urbanizing areas, have been experiencing these impacts, making localized issues of poverty, food insecurity, unemployment, and conflicting land uses, more complex and challenging. Grounded in the reality that cities have competing land uses for the limited available space, policy makers should envision for sustainable spatial development taking into consideration the crosscutting impacts of climate change on the different societal issues such as food insecurity. Urban agriculture has a high potential to enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities and neighborhoods in cities and urbanizing local government units (LGUs). While there are existing national policies that mainstream climate change adaptation (CCA), resource materials on how to integrate urban agriculture (UA) as a CCA strategy into local policy planning is urgently needed. This document provides the policy context and perspectives in mainstreaming UA, particularly the entry points in the different stages of the local climate change action plan and the comprehensive land use plan. This is to guide LGUs in the process of mainstreaming and to provide specific policy recommendations for legislation. In addition, this guidebook is a useful reference for designing and implementing different types of urban farm projects.