2010 National 4-H Convention

Almost 600 youth leaders of the 4-H Club, youth coordinators, and volunteer youth leaders nationwide gathered at the Camarines Sur Capitol Convention Center last May 17 to 20, 2010 to celebrate the club’s National Convention.

The convention with the theme “Youth Empowerment on Climate Change Adaptation: A Time for Action” was also attended and graced by Assistant Director Alberto Maningding of ATI-Central Office, together with other officials like Mr. Allan Vega, Federation President of 4-H Club Philippines, Inc., Guiamaludin Mohamad, Volunteer Leaders Association of the Philippines (VLAP) National President and Hon. Loreto Yu, Mayor of Alang-alang , Leyte and International Farm Youth Exchange (IFYE) President.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Bicol Regional Executive Director Marilyn V. Sta. Catalina happened to deliver the message of Secretary Bernie G. Fondevilla, who was supposedly one of the event’s guest speakers, to the visitors and delegates. Shared insights from the secretary were messages to the government and the people that they must work together in addressing critical threats of climate change which is largely attributed to man’s abuse to the environment. In additional, the secretary pointed out that in order for the government to achieve its agri-fishery development and modernization amidst climate problem, there must be a stronger and sustained collaboration among stakeholders – the DA, Local Government Units (LGU), other policy makers and implementers, farmers, fishers, entrepreneurs and other industry players.

The 4-H National Convention is an annual gathering of all farm youth in the country which is principally being carried out by the DA’s Agricultural Training Institute, in cooperation with the regional, provincial and municipal Farm Youth Development Program (FYDP) from the DA-Regional Field Units, and LGUs, VLAP, and IFYE.

From all who attended, Region XII delegation had the biggest delegation. With sixty delegates, Region XII was led by Alicia Rose Nebreja, ATI-XII Regional Rural Based Organizations (RBOs) Coordinator and Felly Bongat, DA-RFU XII’s Regional FYDP Coordinator.

For more information, contact help@fourhcouncil.edu.

COMSTE, MO hold two-day conference on Country’s Resilience over Climate De-stabilization

Engineering covered the discussions on the two-day conference entitled “Engineering Resilience: Confronting Risk Beyond Adaptation” organized by the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) and the Manila Observatory (MO). This conference was held at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel last March 15 and 16, 2010.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, COMSTE Chair, attended the event and shared insights and actions that can remedy or stabilize the civilization while climate change is inevitable. He expounded on the the importance of raising the level of preparedness of the Philippines in the face of the rising challenges brought on by the devastation caused by natural calamities.

“Resilience is the ability of a nation to bounce back in the face of calamity. This is why it is important for the Philippines to understand and minimize the vulnerability of its cities, especially Metro Manila, which is mostly below sea level,” said Angara. This has been a realization in his part as he also shared the hitting of typhoon Ondoy in the country, especially in Metro Manila last September 2009 when the natural calamity devastated lives, destroyed livelihood and infrastructures, and wiped out the efforts in modernizing the country.

Senator Loren Legarda, the primary author of the Climate Change Act of 2009 and also, the Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change warned that, “A mere one meter rise in sea level would threaten the lives and homes of millions of Filipinos. This is a serious matter that cannot be ignored. That is why I am pleased to see representatives from all over the world present here, as part of the global community, willing to share their knowledge gained from experience to make the Philippines better prepared to handle the volatile whims of Mother Nature.”

The first day of the conference provided an overview of the country’s climate-change studies, risks, hazards and vulnerability assessments and policy directions (“What The Philippines Should Do About Climate Change”) as well as the lessons the country has learned from typhoon Ondoy (post-Ondoy analysis).

The second day concentrated to infrastructure development by Dr. Vinod Menon, from India, food and agriculture by Dr. Asanee Kawtrakul, from Thailand, marine and coastal- areas resource management by Filipino expert Dr. Laura David from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, energy security through expert analysis from the Manila Observatory, and public health by Dr. Eric Rasmussen of the US.

The said conference was supported by PLDT / SMART Business Solutions.

For more details, contact Manila Observatory at telephone numbers (632) 426-5921, 426-0837, 426-6495, email at manila@observatory.ph or visit the website http://comste.gov.ph/, or contact Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering at their front desk (632)551-7920 local 7140, telefax at (632)551-7920 local 7141, direct line at (632)446-8745 or visit the website http://comste.gov.ph/.

COMSTE, MO hold two-day conference on Country’s Resilience over Climate De-stabilization

Engineering covered the discussions on the two-day conference entitled “Engineering Resilience: Confronting Risk Beyond Adaptation” organized by the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) and the Manila Observatory (MO). This conference was held at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel last March 15 and 16, 2010.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, COMSTE Chair, attended the event and shared insights and actions that can remedy or stabilize the civilization while climate change is inevitable. He expounded on the the importance of raising the level of preparedness of the Philippines in the face of the rising challenges brought on by the devastation caused by natural calamities.

“Resilience is the ability of a nation to bounce back in the face of calamity. This is why it is important for the Philippines to understand and minimize the vulnerability of its cities, especially Metro Manila, which is mostly below sea level,” said Angara. This has been a realization in his part as he also shared the hitting of typhoon Ondoy in the country, especially in Metro Manila last September 2009 when the natural calamity devastated lives, destroyed livelihood and infrastructures, and wiped out the efforts in modernizing the country.

Senator Loren Legarda, the primary author of the Climate Change Act of 2009 and also, the Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change warned that, “A mere one meter rise in sea level would threaten the lives and homes of millions of Filipinos. This is a serious matter that cannot be ignored. That is why I am pleased to see representatives from all over the world present here, as part of the global community, willing to share their knowledge gained from experience to make the Philippines better prepared to handle the volatile whims of Mother Nature.”

The first day of the conference provided an overview of the country’s climate-change studies, risks, hazards and vulnerability assessments and policy directions (“What The Philippines Should Do About Climate Change”) as well as the lessons the country has learned from typhoon Ondoy (post-Ondoy analysis).

The second day concentrated to infrastructure development by Dr. Vinod Menon, from India, food and agriculture by Dr. Asanee Kawtrakul, from Thailand, marine and coastal- areas resource management by Filipino expert Dr. Laura David from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, energy security through expert analysis from the Manila Observatory, and public health by Dr. Eric Rasmussen of the US.

The said conference was supported by PLDT / SMART Business Solutions.

For more details, contact Manila Observatory at telephone numbers (632) 426-5921, 426-0837, 426-6495, email at manila@observatory.ph or visit the website http://comste.gov.ph/, or contact Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering at their front desk (632)551-7920 local 7140, telefax at (632)551-7920 local 7141, direct line at (632)446-8745 or visit the website http://comste.gov.ph/.

NCCCA+2 uproots its 1st Conference’s Schemes and Development on Climate Change Adaptation

Looking back from its first conference, the 2009 2nd National Conference on Climate Change Adaptation or NCCCA+2 dug up and shared to the delegates the 1st NCCCA’s efforts on how the national and local policies regarding climate change adaptation had been enacted to level with international developments.

Last October 26 to 28, NCCCA+2, with the presence of the former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, gathered participants from national agencies, local governments, academe, NGOs and other interest groups at Diamond Hotel, Manila to relay information such as the developments in international policy discussions on climate change, particularly adaptation as it relates to disaster risk reduction and mitigation.

NCCCA+2’s theme was “Moving Forward on Albay Declaration 2007”. This was based from the first conference’s Albay Declaration on Climate Change Adaptation which is the embodiment of a convergence of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary efforts to arrest the imminent threats and dangers posed by radical ecological shifts occurring to the planet earth. Albay Declaration 2007 was recognized as the national framework for the mainstreaming of global warming leading to climate change adaptation.

The conference included plenary discussions structured specifically around the Philippine climate scenario and was about the advances made in national and local policies based from the National Strategic Framework on Climate Change Adaptation that covered specific objectives to derive broad consensus on the Philippine Strategic Framework on Climate Change Adaptation, to identify climate change adaptation needs and strategies across various sectors and themes, to provide a venue for knowledge sharing on climate change adaptation and disaster risk management, to provide a thematic platform for RDC cooperation towards a common agenda in moving forward climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management initiatives, and to familiarize with the progress of international policy discussions on climate change with particular emphasis on adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management.

This NCCCA+2 was organized and made possible by the event’s Organizing Committee composed of the Provincial Government of Albay, Centre for Initiatives and Research on Climate Adaptation (CIRCA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Office of the Presidential Adviser on Climate Change (OPACC), Senate of the Philippines, House of Representatives with the support of the GTZ Adaptation to Climate Change and Conservation of Biodiversity (ACCBio) Project, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAFT), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

For more information on the conference, do contact Nong C. Rangasa, Executive Director, Centre for Initiatives and Research on Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) through telefax: +6352 4803649, mobile no. +63906 3339400, e-mail at nongrangasa@yahoo.com, or at the website www.albaycirca.org.

UP Manila Calls for Efforts against Climate Change

While many of us have accepted the fact of the destructive effects of global warming and climate change, the social impact of these phenomena, especially on natural resources, have yet to be discussed in detail.

With the aim to effectively address the consequences of global climate change to the most vulnerable sectors of the society, the University of the Philippines Manila College of Arts and Sciences organized a two-day conference entitled “The Science and Social Impact of Global Climate Change – A Philippine Setting” last Oct. 22–23 at the Pearl Garden Hotel in Ermita, Manila.

The conference discussed, in particular, the effect of the global phenomenon in the local setting and what measures have already been done to curb the massive effect of global warming, as well as to identify how to make agriculture, fisheries, and energy could made sustainable in the midst of climate change.

Eight different plenary sessions were spanned across the two-day event.

Dr. Josefina Argete and Dr. Tolentino Moya discussed the science of climate change in a two-part session, while Prof. Natividad Lacdan went into detail about the social impact of climate change. Dr. Francis Ross de Guzman and Dr. Tonie Balangue were the speakers for local and international policies (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1994 and The Kyoto Protocol in 2003) regarding climate change and “green accounting,” respectively. Other speakers included Drs. Raymond Tan, Lydia Leonardo, and Helen Mendoza, and Atty. Fermin Nestor Gardinab, who tackled sustainable production and consumption, impacts of climate change on health, advocacies, and “green courts.”

The Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) participated in the conference as a partner and sponsor. Pilipinas Shell and Medialdea, Ata, Bello, Guevarra, Suarez are also among the sponsors for the event.

For more information, relevant links, sponsors, and further details, you may visit the following websites: http://sites.google.com/site/upmgcc/ and http://upmclimatechange.ning.com/.

UP Manila Calls for Efforts against Climate Change

While many of us have accepted the fact of the destructive effects of global warming and climate change, the social impact of these phenomena, especially on natural resources, have yet to be discussed in detail.

With the aim to effectively address the consequences of global climate change to the most vulnerable sectors of the society, the University of the Philippines Manila College of Arts and Sciences organized a two-day conference entitled “The Science and Social Impact of Global Climate Change – A Philippine Setting” (http://sites.google.com/site/upmgcc/ and http://www.pchrd.dost.gov.ph/submitted-news/1-press-releases/318-global-climate-change-conference-set-on-october-22-23.html) last Oct. 22–23 at the Pearl Garden Hotel in Ermita, Manila.

The conference discussed, in particular, the effect of the global phenomenon in the local setting and what measures have already been done to curb the massive effect of global warming, as well as to identify how to make agriculture, fisheries, and energy could made sustainable in the midst of climate change.

Eight different plenary sessions were spanned across the two-day event.

Dr. Josefina Argete and Dr. Tolentino Moya discussed the science of climate change in a two-part session, while Prof. Natividad Lacdan went into detail about the social impact of climate change. Dr. Francis Ross de Guzman and Dr. Tonie Balangue were the speakers for local and international policies (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1994 and The Kyoto Protocol in 2003) regarding climate change and “green accounting,” respectively. Other speakers included Drs. Raymond Tan, Lydia Leonardo, and Helen Mendoza, and Atty. Fermin Nestor Gardinab, who tackled sustainable production and consumption, impacts of climate change on health, advocacies, and “green courts.”

The Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) participated in the conference as a partner and sponsor. Pilipinas Shell and Medialdea, Ata, Bello, Guevarra, Suarez are also among the sponsors for the event.

For more information, relevant links, sponsors, and further details, you may visit the following websites: http://sites.google.com/site/upmgcc/ and http://upmclimatechange.ning.com/.