Gov’t to pay poor folk to protect environment

Climate Change Commission, the Aquino administration’s green governance team, is bringing a unique kind of conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to the country’s poorest provinces in order to protect their natural resources.

Commission Vice Chair Mary Ann Lucille Sering said the agency is starting next month a program that would fund alternative livelihood programs in poor localities and provide incentives to residents who protect instead of abuse local resources.

The idea is similar to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s CCT program, which gives cash allowances to the poorest families if they comply with certain conditions, among them, regular school attendance by their children and visits to health centers.

“What we’re doing is like a conditional cash transfer but the condition is to protect [the environment],” said Sering in a roundtable discussion with Inquirer editors and reporters last week.

“What the DSWD is doing right now is giving money to parents if they send their children to school. Here, you give jobs by telling [the recipient] to protect the environment,” she said.

The commission will begin the CCT environment project in Surigao del Norte and Eastern Samar, both among the country’s poorest provinces, Sering said.

For Surigao del Norte, the commission is working with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to bring local manpower to the province’s marine hatchery that grows high-priced abalone and lobster.

The program targets locals who are cutting down the mangroves in the area which are critical to spurring fish production and preventing inland flooding.

“In the island, there’s a contiguous mangrove area. We want them to stop cutting it” said Sering. “The way to encourage them is to provide them with a livelihood (from the mangroves), so they won’t cut it.” she added.

As an added incentive, locals will receive part of the fish yield in mangrove areas they protect.

“One of mechanisms is, if you protect the mangrove, your family will get a portion of the yield of the fish in that area. Then a portion of it also goes to the local government unit so there will be a revolving fund,” Sering said.

The commission is looking at sustaining funding in selected “demo areas” for a year.

Sering said the project would be introduced by next year to 15 other areas in the eastern seaboard.