MANILA, Philippines — The Center for Conservation Innovations PH (CCIPH) spent 2024 continuing to create a safe operating space for biodiversity and people through ecosystem resilience. As in previous years, CCIPH is grateful to partners and donors that enabled the organization to demonstrate how improved conservation science underpins natural resource management decisions and uplifts conservation practices through customized programs that strengthen inclusive biodiversity conservation.
In 2024, CCIPH, together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the USAID SIBOL consortium—the Research Triangle Institute, Resources, Environment, and Economics Center for Studies Inc., Zoological Society of London-Philippines, and Forest Foundation Philippines—launched the “Sukat ng Kalikasan” (SnK) framework and toolkit during the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, 2024. The SnK assessment tools and mechanisms are designed to help enable planners and policymakers to craft evidence- and science-based management plans and decisions for biodiversity conservation.
It will help identify priority areas that require the use of limited resources, and address climate mitigation, adaptation, and good governance. The SnK enables effective natural resource management by reducing biodiversity loss and building more resilient communities and a more resilient economy. Over time, the program will strengthen the implementation of the newly enacted Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System Act.
2024 was also the year when CCIPH transformed its Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) playbook. The country’s post-disaster assessments and recovery efforts have primarily focused on the resumption of economic activities and the provision of basic services, but CCIPH believes that when environmental concerns are not sufficiently incorporated into strategic planning at the outset of the recovery process, the vulnerability of communities are magnified.
To address this gap, CCIPH developed the Green Assessment and Recovery Framework (GARF), a participatory and evidence-based approach using both technical and citizen science data to assess a calamity’s impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems, and community livelihoods. The GARF will help identify areas at risk, or sources of risks, so that the response will address the vulnerability of communities dependent on ecosystems and ecosystem services that are equally susceptible to extreme weather events.
CCIPH, through the USAID SIBOL Project, has trained more than 200 DENR regional and field office staff in implementing the various stages of the GARF. Work is also underway in restoring ecosystems damaged by recent typhoons, and both parties are looking at further scaling up their efforts.
The role of the private sector in mainstreaming Eco-DRR and Eco-Resilience programs in their core business is vital in such expansion efforts. The direct correlation between ecosystems and people is clear: As the health and resilience of ecosystems deteriorate, so does the community’s resilience and capacity to recover.