UNDP allots $18M for Philippines in 2011

THE UNITED NATIONS Development Programme (UNDP) will provide a total of $18 million in assistance to the Philippines this year, a bulk of which will be alloted to environmental projects, the agency’s top official in the country said at the sidelines of an international biodiversity conference in Pasay City yesterday.
“For 2011, total UNDP assistance to the Philippines will be in the average of about $18 million, out of which about $11 million will be directly related to the area of environment, energy and climate change,” Country Director for the Philippines Renaud Meyer told BusinessWorld after a press conference during the International Conference on Biodiversity and Climate Change in the Philippine International Convention Center.

The total amount of UNDP assistance to the Philippines for 2010 was not immediately available.

Mr. Meyer said the $11-million assistance for the environment will finance projects on climate change adaptation, preservation of protected areas, biodiversity conservation, promotion of renewable energy development for use by local industries, as well as environmental governance, management and policy formulation.

The balance of $7 million will fund other projects “in the areas of poverty reduction, political governance improvement, human rights, access to justice, crisis prevention and recovery, support to the peace process, as well as the fight against HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome),” Mr. Meyer added.

Amelia D. Supetran, a team leader of UNDP Philippines’ Environment and Energy division, said in a separate interview yesterday that environment projects took the lion’s share of allocations this year due to the global trend of increasing funding for climate-change-related measures.

“It’s a recognition that we have to secure the remaining sources that we have,” she said.

Sought for comment, Elma M. Eleria, project evaluation officer of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said separately by phone that the UNDP fund for environment this year may finance renewable energy and biodiversity projects as well as capacity-building among national government agencies concerned and local government units.

“There are already ongoing projects,” she said, without citing details.

In the first day of the conference, which ends tomorrow, representatives of various government agencies and international organizations called on researchers, scientists, academicians and policy makers to coordinate efforts, noting that climate change is a serious threat to the world’s biodiversity.

“In the Philippines, the threat is serious. More than 65% of the 50,000 documented species are endemic or are found only in the island of the Philippines; and every year, yet more are being discovered,” a conference statement read.

“But many of these plant and animal species — 695 plants and 223 animals to be exact, according to the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau — are threatened by habitat loss, pollution, introduction of invasive species and over-exploitation for food and other uses.”

Senator Loren B. Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, said in her speech during the conference that “non-climate stresses [sic],” particularly human activities, continue to threaten ecosystems.

“We cannot sit idly as our fragile ecosystems are destroyed by unsustainable development practices and climate change,” she said.

She added that current efforts must focus on agro-forestry, planting trees and preserving ricefields in order to protect the environment while providing livelihood to the poor.

For her part, Ms. Supetran said farming and fishing communities depend on the environment for the sources of their livelihood.

Even the urban poor is affected by environmental degradation, Ms. Supetran said. “When air and water is deteriorated, their health is affected. They cannot afford medicines and being absent from work,” she explained. –JO JAVAN A. CERDA, Businessworld