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Climate change can no longer be ignored; the Philippines needs the REDD+ strategy.
This is according to Forester Lourdes Wagan, Chief of the Planning and Project Management Services Division of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' (DENR) Forest Management Bureau, during SEARCA's Agriculture and Development Seminar Series (ADSS) held on 25 January 2011, where she talked about “The Philippine National REDD+ Strategy”.
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation plus conservation, sustainable forest management, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) is a new forest conservation mechanism. It is a measure of providing incentives to developing countries to slow down their rate of deforestation and degradation to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions.
According to Forester Wagan, deforestation and land use change contributes to 17 percent of the green house gases in the atmosphere. In the Philippines alone, 30 out of 81 provinces experience deforestation. She explained that, in spite of this, a report of the Forest Investment Program (FIP) Expert Group in 2010 reveals that the Philippines has a large carbon mitigation potential amounting to 38.5 megatons of carbon from 2011-2030.
As such, she concurred that the Philippines has a great promise for REDD+ implementation.
The Philippine National REDD+ Strategy (PNRS), according to Forester Wagan, uses a bottom-up, multi-stakeholder approach. Its key components include: an enabling policy, governance, research and development, communication and capacity building, resource use and allocation management, a measuring-reporting-verifying (MRV) system, and sustainable financing.
Furthermore, PNRS envisions empowered forest managers sustainably and equitably managing forestlands and ancestral domains with enhanced carbon stock and reduced GHG emissions. Apart from reducing degradation and deforestation, PNRS impact areas include poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation and improved governance.
PNRS is a ten-year plan, from 2010-2020. It was approved in July 2010 by the DENR, after a series of workshops, reviews, and consultations.
At present, the PNRS has been forwarded to the Philippine Climate Change Commission to serve as input to the National Climate Change Action Plan, currently being drafted.
Forester Wagan is part of the team that formulated the Philippines National REDD+ Strategy. In addition, she helped in formulating the Climate Proofing section of the Forestry Master Plan and the guidelines of DENR's Forestland Boundary Delineation. She also helped implement the Model Forest Project—a ridge-to-rift approach involving multi-stakeholder participation in Sustainable Forest Management. (Angela Mae S. Minas)
Download the handout of the presentation [rokdownload menuitem="132" downloaditem="267" direct_download="true"]here[/rokdownload].
DISCLAIMER:
The point of view taken by this article is entirely that of the presenter's and does not reflect in any way, SEARCA’s position.
