A 4.6-million euro grant from the German government’s International Climate Initiative will secure drinking water for 500 households and irrigation to 3,000 hectares of agricultural land in Negros and Davao Region, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) announced on Sunday.
The project “Ecosystem-based Adaptation in 2 River Basins” (E2RB) is a partnership project with the German-commissioned Deutsche Geselschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). It will be implemented by the DENR through the River Basin Control Office (RBCO).
The project is due to begin implementation this year despite delays due to government measures to stem the Covid-19 infection.
According to RBCO Executive Director Nelson V. Gorospe, a “project management committee has already been created.”
“We can start implementation this year after some delays due to Covid 19,” Gorospe added.
The E2RB will be carried out in Ilog Hilabangan in Negros and Tagum Libuganon (mainly Davao del Norte) in Davao Region.
The E2RB will strengthen the river basins’ ecosystem services, protect their biodiversity and important, reduce their vulnerability to climate change as destructive flooding have been experienced in the river basins.
“One of the basis for the choice of the site is perennial flooding,” Gorospe said.
E2RB is in line with DENR’s program on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation and Disaster Risk Reduction Roadmap 2018-2022. It also aligns with the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and enhanced National Greening Program.
“The effective protection of forests in river basins supports the objectives of the Philippines’s ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contributions,’ or INDC, in the area of mitigation through the contribution of forest sector to the planned total greenhouse gas reduction of 70 percent in 2030,” according to the DENR-GIZ agreement.
The project’s target output include the coordinated implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation for reliable water supply, better water quality and optimized disaster risk management and targeted biodiversity protection.
The project also aims to ensure the use of ecosystem services valuation instruments in government policies, plans and monitoring procedures for conservation financing for protected area.
Lastly, 20 municipalities around the river basins should have reduced vulnerability to climate change with improved biodiversity protection (from landslide, flood risk in four watersheds reduced by 10 percent.
Another target output is the prevention or reduction of the extinction of important species in the forests in the river basins. Among the threatened species in the Ilog Hilabangan watershed are hornbills (Penelopides panini and Aceros waldeni), the endangered Philippine spotted deer (Cervus alfredi) and the Philippine warty pig (Sus cebifrons).