By Gerry Lee Gorit
Correspondent
THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) continues its nationwide consultations with more than 300 industry and sector leaders in a two-day forum in Cagayan de Oro City to refine and craft adaptive, inclusive, and sustainable development pathways built on strategic partnerships and sound science for the agency’s Resiliency Framework for Environment and Natural Resources.
Starting on Thursday, the forum will gather insights on environmental governance, as well as other pertinent issues such as ecotourism, agriculture and food security, forest and land management, climate and disaster resilience, and mining.
The Mindanao leg follows the Luzon and Visayas legs of the forum, which commenced in Manila last October, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in attendance.
“The preservation of the environment is the preservation of life. If we cannot mitigate climate change, all our plans for the economy, all our plans for the future will be for naught,” he was quoted as saying.
The forum aims to produce evidence-informed actions for the protection, conservation, enhancement, and regeneration of the Philippines’ ecosystems.
DENR Secretary Antonia Loyzaga stressed that the Mindanao region “requires a localized and contextualized approach” and assured stakeholders that the DENR will continue its extensive consultations across all speeches with local communities.
“The Mindanao region is blessed with a rich, complex, social, and natural history. It is at the intersection of this social and physical geography that both risk and opportunities reside. Creating and building these opportunities and mitigating the risks require partnerships that lead to a new type of agency based on competent and committed leadership that prioritizes human development, sustainable local economies, resilient infrastructure, and underpinning all of these ecosystems that support human security, food, water, energy, peace, and equity,” Secretary Loyzaga said.
Echoing the statement of Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. to “commit to our advocacy for our next generation of Filipinos for sustainable development,” the DENR is committed to ensuring that extensive consultation with local actors will be done across all interventions and at all stages.
For his part, Camiguin Rep. Jurdin Jesus Romualdo, in his message, said there is a need to put in place environmental policies that would ensure that tourist sites are protected and preserved.
Romualdo cited his home province of Camiguin where they were able to practice good waste management in consonance with their tourism industry.
