Macro-management for river basins

The Climate Change Commission (CCC) is battling for a macro-view management of river basins in the country, as it emphasized the need to strengthen preservation of watersheds, forest mangroves and river systems to combat climate change.

CCC Vice Chairman Secretary Heherson Alvarez said concerned national agencies and local governments, as well as the public, must have a “new mindset or new outlook” to take on a holistic approach in river basin protection.

River basins are interlocking and integrated ecosystems, encompassing the entire land surface dissected and drained by streams and creeks that flow downhill into one another, and eventually into one river. The final destination is an estuary, or an ocean. A river basin sends all the water falling on the surrounding land into a central river and out to the sea.

For instance, Alvarez said that forests now have a new defined function. He said that according to latest science, forest is not only a fallback to floods or even drought, but is also considered carbon sinks that can be the bulwark or defense against the clear danger of climate change.

“We must keep away from the old system and habits of the past must be corrected since they appear to have already failed us,” Alvarez pointed out.

“There must be a macro-view management of the river basin systems, including watersheds, mangroves and rivers of an island or a province or provinces and not look at it under political divisions. There must be a holistic ecological preservation. We must learn to recognize the inter-locking relationships to moderate the destruction [of climate change],” he added.

The River Basin Management Strategy is among the several approaches that will be pushed by the CCC under the National Framework Strategy of Climate Change that was recently approved by President Gloria Arroyo, who chairs the commission.

Its goals are to manage watershed ecosystems and multipolar environments through strategic priorities such as:

a. Rehabilitate and develop watershed resources through resource use improvements and governance improvement;
b. Enhance vulnerability and adaptation assessments;
c. Enhance ecosystem services to control droughts, floods and landslides;
d. Institute a comprehensive river basin management governance strategy;
e. Establish appropriate and participatory institutional arrangements with local governmens, private sectors and civil society organizations; and
f. Reduce climate change risks and vulnerability of watershed ecosystems and biodiversity through ecosystem-based management approaches, conservation efforts and sustainable ENR-based economic endeavors such as ecotourism.

During the first quarterly meeting of the Regional Multi-Sectoral Forest Protection Committee of Western Visayas held in Iloilo City on May 5, Alvarez said that Panay Island could be a pilot area for the River Basin Management Strategy.

The Regional Multi-Sectoral Forest Protection Committee of Western Visayas was attended by officials from, among others, the National Bureau of Investigation, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Metro Iloilo Water District; Philippine National Police-Region VI, Philippine Coast Guard, Commission on Higher Education, Philippine Army, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and local governments. –Manila Times