By Catherine Teves (PNA)
MANILA — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will hold this month certain activities that will help Philippine communities build resilience to climate change.
“DENR offices in Metro Manila and regions nationwide will disseminate to the public information about climate change and resilience-building measures that communities can undertake,” said Elenida Basug, director of DENR’s Climate Change Service (CCS), in an interview this week.
Environmental clean-ups, tree-planting, and airing of videos on climate change are also among the activities slated for November.
Basug said resilience-building is necessary, since the Philippines is among the countries most vulnerable to the changing climate.
“DENR can provide technical assistance on helping communities develop climate resilience,” she said.
Resilience is the “ability of a system, community, or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform, and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management,” the United Nations (UN) Office for Disaster Risk Reduction said.
Aside from promoting resilience-building nationwide, activities DENR set throughout this month are aligned with the country’s celebration of the annual Global Warming and Climate Change Consciousness Week (GWCCCW).
Proclamation 1667 series of 2008 declared Nov. 19 to 25 of every year as GWCCCW that enjoins all government entities to conduct related activities.
Among the communities, where the DENR will again disseminate information on climate change and resilience-building is Barangay Bagong Silang in Caloocan City.
Such area is flood-prone and impoverished, Basug noted.
“Both conditions indicate Barangay Bagong Silang has high climate vulnerability,” she said.
Climate change hits impoverished people the hardest, as they lack the resources to help them adapt to and recover from extreme weather and other impacts of climate change, authorities said.
Basug said last year, the DENR disseminated climate information in Barangay Bagong Silang, as part of the agency’s community engagement in the area, to help address climate vulnerability and build resilience there.
DENR’s community engagement in that community this year will be an opportunity to follow through climate interventions done there so far, she added.
