ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT
Sustainable development being an all-embracing objective to lead to sustained growth and stability, environmental concerns and approaches have been integrated in many of our programs and projects – in education, infrastructure and utilities, health and sanitation, etc. We subscribe to our intergenerational responsibility to succeeding generations while we provide the needed services and aim for socio-economic development for the current population.
Focusing on environment relates to social protection and poverty alleviation, as well as strengthening governance and institutions – these in consonance with the United Nations’ MDG Goals to which the Philippines subscribes to.
With climate change, the Philippines is considered as one of the more vulnerable countries because of our archipelagic condition and location. Mindanao is predicted to become the warmest in the Philippines. Being aware of that, we in Misamis Oriental Provincial Government (through our PPDO) and with the assistance of NEDA-10 under a technical grant from the AusAID have enhanced the GIS-based hazard maps initially generated by Department of Environment and Natural Resources-MGB. This will serve as database and a monitoring and evaluation or M&E tool for Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation Management.
We have accessed and partnered with donor agencies and non-government organizations or the NGOs as well to implement environmental projects given our scarce resources to address the enormity of these concerns. For one, the European Union funded Focused Food Production Assistance to Vulnerable Sector or the FPAVAS Project selected Misamis Oriental as one of the few LGU beneficiaries and appreciated our selected approach on watershed management, using the upstream to downstream approach.
We have prioritized micro-watershed management. We are fortunate that the Japan International Development Agency or the JICA approved our request for technical and funding assistance, Misamis Oriental being the only LGU it approved for assistance in Mindanao then. This environmental prioritization is anchored on the fact that watershed being a complex ecosystem has interacting natural components, is a vital source of water supply, provides socio-economic base to a population and helps maintain ecological balance. Now, the JICA showcases Misamis Oriental micro-watershed management project as having good, replicable practices such as rainwater catchment (which we have even earlier implemented throughout the province – Misamis Oriental being one of the few local governments to enforce the related law) and natural resource management-based enterprise development. [Next: Hospital and Health Systems]
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