QUEZON CITY, 14 March (PIA) ---The Climate Change Commission (CCC) launched the "Communities for Resilience" (CORE) which intends to promote the understanding of climate and disaster risk especially by communities identified by experts to be more vulnerable to disasters caused by climate change.
The project aims to help facilitate access of grassroots communities, LGUs, and people's organizations to the People Survival Fund (PSF) in order to support their respective climate change adaptation and mitigation programs.
It also aims to strengthen the technical knowledge and capacity of LGUs in developing the Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP) through a series of convergence consultations and trainings.
The first CORE Convergence Forum was held in Davao City from March 10 to 11 led by CCC vice chairperson Sec. Emmanuel de Guzman. The pilot CORE Convergence Forum involves stakeholders from 18 LGUs located around the Tagum-Libuganon River Basin.
The CORE Convergence Forum will be conducted throughout the year to cover other major river basins across the country such as Pasig-Laguna, Pampanga, Agno, Abra, Cagayan, Agusan, Mindanao, Ilog-Hilabangan, Tagoloan, Cagayan De Oro, Ranao (Agus), Davao, Buayan-Malungon, Bicol, Panay, Jalaur, and Apayao-Abulug.
The 18 Major River Basins are identified as key priority areas by the Cabinet Cluster for Adaptation and Mitigation.
“Combining all the important aspects of the climate change adaptation and mitigation (CCAM) projects and the disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) programs of the present government will lead to a more coherent, holistic, substantial and meaningful approach and strategies to significantly lessen the risks linked to climate change and to the geophysical hazards many communities are exposed to daily,” De Guzman stated.
The CCAM and the DRRM are two distinct strategies, but both of them aim to substantially reduce risk and vulnerabilities directly and indirectly caused by national disasters, De Guzman also explained, noting the provisions of the Climate Change Act of 2009 and the Philippine National Disaster Risk and Management Act of 2010.
The annual natural calamities and hazards which affect the Philippines is costing the country 5 percent of the yearly gross domestic product, according to the World Bank. Losses and damages from Super Typhoon Yolanda alone were placed at $15 billion or roughly P650 billion.
De Guzman said the socio-economic losses due to natural calamities and hazards is likewise accompanied by loss of lives and injuries to thousands of Filipinos as more and more Filipinos are occupying or settling down along coastlines, waterways and landslide-susceptible and -prone areas.
“Failure to appropriately prepare for and implement the much needed programs and projects on the combined climate change adaptation and mitigation projects and the disaster risk reduction and management programs may lead to more devastating disasters in the country, De Guzman said.
“We need to act decisively and collectively now! Simply, we cannot afford to lose more lives and incur bigger socio-economic losses,” De Guzman added. (CCC/RJB/MAPA/PIA-NCR)
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