Ecosystem Management & Restoration Archives - Page 2 of 4

The Moving Urban Poor Communities in Mindanao towards Resilience Project (MOVE UP-Mindanao) is an urban resilience project aimed at contributing to the resilience building of urban poor populations to withstand and manage the impact of disasters. It seeks to strengthen the urban disaster preparedness, response, and management capacity of the national, sub-national, and local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders through the adaption and replication of tested urban resilience strategies.

In partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government-Local Government Academy (DILG-LGA), the project intends to share its lessons learned, good practices, and innovations gathered and tested from its experience working with urban poor communities, municipalities, and provinces to contribute to the large-scale resilience-building effort.

MOVE UP Mindanao is implemented by a consortium of international non-government organizations which includes Plan International Philippines, Action Against Hunger, and CARE Philippines with its local partner ACCORD Inc. Funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the project is currently being implemented in nine (9) local government units (LGUs) in Mindanao.

The Resilience Knowledge Exchange Series (RKES) Session covering this topic was held on May 27, 2021 which aimed to :

Share the experience of CARE and ACCORD regarding their IRM mainstreaming work;
Provide guidance on how to implement mainstreaming using the recently-published Mainstreaming Integrated Risk Management: An Accompanying Guide to Planning; and
Serve as an introductory session and a preparation for more detailed, comprehensive IRM mainstreaming sessions in the future.

This presentation on Mainstreaming Integrated Risk Management in the Local Government Units’ Planning System was created and presented by Ms. Ma. Stella Dulce, IRM Specialist.

To access a soft copy of this material, please click here.

Looking for a presentation from the same event and can’t find it?

Kindly note that if there are unavailable presentations at the moment, they are still being finalized and will be uploaded as soon as available to the RILHUB team.

The briefer aims at familiarizing INCREASE target communities with the definition and characteristics of Integrated Risk Management (IRM). It also contains the CARE IRM Framework and the elements in increasing resilience. The content was written in local language for easier understanding of community members. This will be printed in a flyer and distributed as supplementary information material for INCREASE activities.

Click on images in the gallery below to enlarge and download this resource.

INCREASE or “Philippines – Increasing Resilience to Natural Hazards” aims to increase the resilience of 45,00 women and men small scale farmers and fishers, including 720 extremely poor female-headed households, to natural hazards and the effect of climate change. The project will run from 2019-2021 in different parts of the Philippines, namely 36 barangays across 8 municipalities in the provinces of Cagayan, Mt. Province, Northern Samar, and Surigao del Sur. Its project components and activities include early warning systems, alternative livelihood, and climate and disaster governance.

by INCREASE

Cagayan Province, where two INCREASE municipalities (Amulung and Cagayan) are located, have been heavily devastated by a series of typhoons—Category 3 Typhoon Molave, Category 5 Super Typhoon Goni, and Category 4 Typhoon Vamco in a span of three weeks. This has brought the worst flooding the province has recorded for the last 40 years. The lost lives, livelihood, and shelter exacerbated the already difficult situations of the communities whose mobility and sources of income have been limited because of the pandemic.

Before the disaster

Before the onslaught of the disasters, INCREASE field team has been deployed to conduct community risk assessments and community-based disaster risk reduction and management trainings in Amulung and Gattaran. In such activities, farmers and fishers, along with women, the elderly, youth, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable persons provided valuable insights on sector-specific hazards, risks, and vulnerabilities in their communities. The barangay captain from Brgy. Annabuculan, Amulung, Cagayan expressed his newfound appreciation for how preparedness measures should be conducted. He appreciated the Community Risk Assessment conducted by INCREASE in their barangay, saying “the information [we] learned were useful and helped us realize the importance of assessments and conducting early action in order to mitigate the disaster.” This has proven how important such activities in building the capacities of the communities in responding to disasters. In addition, information materials such as primers on hazards and evacuation measures were also distributed to community members to help them prepare for the typhoons. The team also coordinated with the barangay DRRM council and monitored and disseminated information from PAGASA so it can be shared with community members.

INCREASE areas in Amulung and Gattaran were severely affected by Typhoon Vamco.

The team has also proceeded with household selection for resilient livelihood activities. During which, they have identified the evolving needs of the community. Because of the pandemic, community members are restricted to travel and need to secure food sources within their area. Together with the local government, the team will help them establish communal gardens which can help sustain the food needs of the community while also diversifying their source of income. Organic farming orientations promoting sustainable farming techniques were also implemented in the area. As farmers and community members are used to synthetic farming, the orientations helped them gain knowledge on natural farming practices that do not cause harm to the ecosystem.

Emergency Response

During the flooding disaster, the team has also been present on the ground. It helped in the facilitation of resource mobilization for emergency response and aid delivery, through conducting assessments in INCREASE areas and participating in the joint Rapid Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis (RDANA). Its visibility increased the local government’s trust and support for the project.

The team has also seen this as an opportunity to lobby for the mainstreaming of integrated risk management in local development plans, since the disaster was caused by the inter-linkages of disasters, climate change impacts, and ecosystem degradation. It has also initiated landscape-wide early warning systems to be established.

INCREASE or Increasing the Resilience to Natural Hazards aims to increase the resilience of 45,000 women and men small-scale farmers and fishers, including 720 extreme poor female-headed households, to natural hazards and the effects of climate change. The project is supported by the SKala initiative. SKala is driven by the German entrepreneur Susanne Klatten in partnership with the think tank and non-profit consultancy PHINEO.

Despite the wealth of data about disasters in Metro Manila, no dedicated study has holistically examined the risks associated with the Malabon-Navotas-Tullahan-Tinajeros river system (MANATUTI), especially in an urban landscape perspective. A pilot risk assessment of the river system was conducted using the integrated risk management, landscape, and urban resilience 190 approaches. Document analyses, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and field visits were done to identify and analyze the hazards that pose threats to the communities along MANATUTI, especially the urban poor, and how vulnerabilities aggravate and capacities mitigate these risks, especially in the socio-economic, environmental, infrastructural, institutional, and governance aspects of the river system. Communities in the river system face severe risk to compound hazards such as flooding exacerbated by ground subsidence, sea-level rise, and storm surge, fire and liquefaction resulting from earthquake, and public health outbreaks made favorable by increasing temperature, environmental pollution, and congestion, among others. These are worsened by extreme poverty and the powerlessness of the greater population and the highly fragmented urban planning and risk management efforts in the landscape. Nevertheless, the inclination of the communities toward collaboration and transformation, alongside expansive rooms for improved governance, are important capacities that may enhance their resilience to disaster. A formal, well-supported, landscape-wide, inter-community governing institution that practices equitable distribution of responsibilities and resources is deemed essential to realize a comprehensive and effective disaster risk reduction and management in the river system in the face of rapidly changing climate and environment.

To view and download the full document, please click here.

Zoom in, zoom out: Scalar politics, master planning, and environmental justice concerns

A case study connecting the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Masterplan to the small-scale fisherfolk and urban poor living along the coastline of Manila Bay

Thesis Report by: Lieke Brackel

ABSTRACT

Inhabitants of Metro Manila are confronted with challenges such as the overall congestion of the fast-growing city, ecological degradation, and aggravated exposure to natural hazards due to climate change. Stakeholders present in- and around Manila Bay have different interests and perspectives on how the coastline should develop, resulting in fierce competition.

This research focusses on two groups of stakeholders in particular: the urban poor and small-scale fisherfolk living along the waterways in Navotas. They express environmental justice concerns about decreased access to the bay and space for social housing (distribution), persistence of negative stigma and disregard for resource-based livelihoods (recognition), lacking representation, consultation, and information provision (participation), and the overall degradation of the Manila Bay ecosystem (ecological integrity). Most importantly, they experience distress as they are uncertain how their livelihoods and homes are influenced by development projects requiring land reclamations, construction of the dyke, and/or relocations.

The Manila Bay Sustainable Development Masterplan (MBSDMP) is initiated- and partly funded by the Dutch government. This consultancy project aims to advise decision-makers within the Philippine government to steer the development of Manila Bay into a more ‘sustainable’ and‘inclusive’ direction. The expectation has been raised, that the MBSDMP would be conducted in a ‘participatory’ manner, referring to the Dutch Delta Approach. Explicitly also including the small-scale fisherfolk and urban poor. And for that local view, you have to zoom in.

However, choosing to plan for the scale of ‘Manila Bay’ can (unintentionally) influence the rules of the game and/or be used as an active instrument to win that game. In line with political ecology, this thesis uses the theoretical frame of scalar politics to explore what the MBSDMP case-study could reveal about the main research question: ‘How does high-level, ecological delineated, and long-term planning relate to locally expressed environmental justice concerns?’

This qualitative explorative research project attempted to connect the local barangay level in Navotas with the high-level MBDSMP planning process: zooming in and out. Findings are based on a three-month fieldwork period in the Philippines including ethnographic observations of key events, document analysis, and 37 interviews. By literally jumping between these layers of governance, tensions and diverging expectations were encountered about the role of participation in- and the objectives and scope of the MBSDMP.

Moreover, this thesis describes how strategic master planning risks aggravating- instead of addressing environmental justice concerns as expressed by small-scale fisherfolk and urban poor. Issues most important to these groups can become sidelined by the choice for the bay-wide scale of governance. On the other hand, actors can try to use the created invited spaces of participation in the MBSDMP to bring back the human-perspective in strategic master planning. This is especially relevant considering the centralizing and militaristic trends in the Philippine planning context. Still, the high-level, ecologically delineated, and long-term orientation of the planning exercise does pose challenges for the practical organization of participation. Hence, it depends on the theory of change assumptions of actors involved whether (and if so, how) they believe the MBSDMP could be a useful instrument to address environmental injustices. This thesis does not draw final conclusions about the particular case of the MBSDMP, as the planning process was highly dynamic and still evolving when the fieldwork period ended. Yet, the dilemma’s described can inform and support general reflection by scientists and practitioners on the politics of choosing ecological boundaries as scale of governance, also in other strategic master planning processes. This thesis emphasizes the need to not only zoom out, but also zoom in.

View, read, and download the full thesis here.

Integrated Risk Management Training Manual (4 modules) Contents:

Module 1: Community-Based Disaster Risk Management
Module 2: Community Risk Assessment
Module 3: Contingency Planning
Module 4: Mainstreaming DRR, CCA, at EMR sa mga planong pangkaunlaran

This manual is written for facilitators who will conduct training in communities that are vulnerable to various hazards.

It may also be useful for members of disaster risk reduction and management bodies in schools and at the community, barangay, city, and municipal levels; and other non-government organizations.

It is written in Filipino and presents the technical subject matter in terms that are easily understandable, and in a format that is easily readable. Among other resources, it contains tools to conduct community risk assessments.

This companion guide to mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation (CCA) and ecosystem management and restoration (EMR) in an integrated way is a product of many years of practice, reflection and learning. In 2012, ACCORD and CARE Nederland published a 3-volume Training on Disaster Preparedness and Contingency Planning manual. One session, on risk reduction planning, briefly touched on mainstreaming DRR, CCA and EMR in development plans. Today, we are transforming our accumulated knowledge on mainstreaming into this companion guide or handbook, with optimism that others will find value in, and learn from our experience.

CARE Nederland introduced to us the project cycle management approach to mainstreaming. The Bureau of Local Government Development of the Department of Interior and Local Government trained us on mainstreaming DRR and CCA in the Rationalized Planning System. For both, their support was crucial in the development of our mainstreaming practice. The local government units (LGUs) that have worked with us in the mainstreaming process are too numerous to acknowledge individually, but Saint Bernard, a municipality of Southern Leyte, and Calabanga in Camarines Sur deserve special mention. Led respectively by mayors Rico Rentuza and Evelyn Yu, Saint Bernard and Calabanga enthusiastically collaborated with us in our earliest attempt at mainstreaming. Equally valuable was our collaboration with the municipalities of Maragusan, Davao de Oro and La Paz, Leyte; the Metro Manila cities of Malabon and Navotas;

To view and download the full document, please click here.

This Manual was originally published in Filipino in 2009, bearing the title Pagsasanay sa Disaster Preparedness at Contingency Planning. The publication in Filipino was intentional. The targeted users of the manual were high-risk communities and local authorities in the Philippines. Moreover, the choice made by CARE and the Corporate Network for Disaster Response to propagate the community-based approach to disaster risk reduction dictated that the manual be published in Filipino.

Much has transpired since the manual’s publication in 2009. The manual was a product of the Strengthening Assets and Capacities of Communities and Local Governments for Resilience to Disasters (ACCORD) project. Two follow-up community-based disaster risk reduction projects have since been completed, also supported by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). A five-year community-based disaster risk reduction programme was also started in 2011, with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands. These projects have served to enrich the content of the training manual.

Aside from the foregoing explicit DRR projects, other projects implemented by CARE and partners CNDR, Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CorDisRDS), Agri-Aqua Development Coalition (AADC) and Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development (ACCORD Inc.) have used Pagsasanay sa Disaster Preparedness at Contingency Planning. Five emergency response projects since Ketsana (Ondoy) and a food security and livelihood project funded by the EuropeAid have used the manual as a means for mainstreaming DRR in emergency response. This experience likewise contributed to the enrichment of Pagsasanay.

Over three years of practical experience later, frameworks, approaches and concepts have clarified and evolved. Tools and learning methodologies have vastly improved. These developments required that Pagsasanay be updated. An updated Pagsasanay would feature the addition of sessions on climate change adaptation and ecosystem management and restoration. This is in recognition of present realities – that disasters are becoming more frequent and more destructive because of climate change and environmental degradation. These aspects were not present in the original manual. Other additions are the sessions on relevant DRR and CCA laws and the organization of functional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils (DRRMCs). There were two push factors for these inclusions. One is the passage of the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act and the Climate Change Act.

The second factor is closely linked to the first: village, municipal and school authorities wanted to know more about the new laws and are requesting assistance for them to be able to comply with the provisions of the laws. So then why an English edition? Early on, there was already a demand for an English edition from those who do not read and speak Filipino. The lack of an English edition prevented the dissemination of the manual on a wider scale, within the Philippines and beyond.

Training on Disaster Preparedness and Contingency Planning is the response to the oft-received request for an English translation of the manual. Updating of the original manual in Filipino, and its translation and publication in English are a fulfilment of the obligation of CARE and partners to share what has been developed from experience and collaboration amongst high-risk communities and local authorities.

View and download the first module here.