RUPES-ICRAF Philippines and partners are at the final preparation for the 3rd National Conference-Workshop on Payments for Environmental Services (PES) which will be on August 12-13 at Lancaster Hotel of Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila. The event will focus on PES for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.

Asked why the conference’s focus is on climate change adaptation and mitigation, Dr. Emma Abasolo, RUPES Philippines Coordinator, explained, “Because it is very timely now that we are experiencing the change in climate here. Our people can feel that it is really not that stable anymore, and we have already experienced so many typhoons and floods especially last year. Now that it is our rainy season once again, we must be prepared to face the challenges accompanying these abnormal changes in our climate!”

Climate change is one of the most challenging issues facing humanity today. The Philippines, being one of the countries most likely to be severely affected by climate change due to its location and environmental condition, should be prepared to face it through mitigation and adaptation.

“Through the conference-workshop, we intend to encourage local community and organization leaders to prioritize environmental protection and conservation. We also want to show how PES can be utilized as a financial instrument to promote and work toward climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

Through this event, RUPES-ICRAF Philippines and its partners are also expecting to lay down the basis for research and development direction as well as to identify policy needs and design for the future of PES that the Philippine Government should be able to facilitate for speeding up its development and implementation in the country.

Backstage
RUPES-ICRAF Philippines acts as the Convener of the PES Technical Working Group (TWG), an informal collaboration of 10 organizations from the government, NGO and academic sectors.

This year, to facilitate more efficient exchanges of information and ideas from updates and experiences, the PES TWG is organizing this 3rd National PES Conference. Expected to participate are about 100 leaders from the different related government executive and legislative branches, the civil society sectors (NGOs, POs), the private and finance sectors (businesses, corporate foundations, financing institutions, donor organizations), as well as from the research institutions and the academe.

RUPES-ICRAF Philippines has received financial support for the PES National Conference from partners such as CI (Conservation International), PTFCF (Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation Inc.), NEDA/DENR Foreign Assisted Project - Millennium Development Goals Fund (MDG-F), and ACB (ASEAN Center for Biodiversity).

As the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation (PTFCF) has been most active in the promotions of forest and watershed conservation and protection to equitably benefit the Filipino people, it has agreed to be the Publications Partner on the Proceedings of the 3rd PES Conference Workshop.

The MDG-F 1656, on the other hand, is specially geared towards increasing the capacities of the duty bearers (including the national government organizations and the local government units /LGUs) to incorporate climate change adaptation in national and local development planning, programming and implementation, as well as increasing the capacities of claim holders (specially the local communities) to develop demonstrable climate change adaptation measures.

The MDG-F 1656 sees the 3rd National PES Conference – Workshop as a good opportunity to fulfill their objectives and as a good opportunity to inform, educate and communicate the national and local government leaders, as well as the local community and civil society leaders on climate change adaptation. CI and ACB are already active members of the PES TWG.

Click here to learn more about the 3rd National PES Conference-Workshop

Click here to download the provisional agenda.