RP reforestation efforts lauded

MANILA, Philippines – Over 200 environment officials and experts from Asia and Europe have cited the reforestation program of the Philippines, tagging it as one of the “low carbon pioneers” in the world in efforts to confront the challenges of climate change.

At the 2nd Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Development Conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, speakers from Cambodia and Europe recognized the reforestation programs of the Philippines as part of the efforts to combat climate change.

The meeting held last week had the theme “Towards an Asia-Europe Partnership for Sustainable Development.”

Aside from Philippines, ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are also implementing massive reforestation programs, which the officials called “gateways to a low carbon community,” a statement from the Climate Change Commission (CCC) said.

Prof. Dirk Messner, director of the German Development Institute, stressed during the conference that “dangerous climate change can only be avoided by low carbon development,” and that “if ASEM countries would go for low carbon development they could transform the global economy.”

The Philippines was represented by CCC vice chairman Heherson Alvarez, who is now in Norway for the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference 2010, hosted by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

“Forest is important in our global fight against climate change because trees capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Alvarez said, adding that the atmosphere is now loaded with greenhouse gases which cause global warming and climate change.

An output of the conference is the Yogyakarta Declaration, which will be an input to the forthcoming ASEM-8 Brussels Summit on Oct. 4-5, 2010.

In the declaration, delegates recognized the challenges of forest protection, investment in research and development on low carbon technology, training of experts on low-carbon matters, low-carbon growth with positive effects on job creation, awareness raising, and urbanization.

The conference was a follow-up to the ASEM-7 Beijing Summit Declaration on Sustainable Development and the first ASEM Development Conference held in Manila in April 2009.

ASEM is a vital forum for dialogue between Europe and Asia, and is the main multilateral channel for communication and dialogue between Asia and Europe since 1996. –Paolo Romero, Michael Punongbayan (philstar.com)