Ford awards P2M in environmental grants

Ford Group Phils. has awarded five recipients with almost P2 million in grants under the 2003 Ford Conservation and Environmental Grants program. The grants money will be divided among the different projects in the areas of natural environment, heritage, and child and youth.

The five grantees and their projects are: Center for Environmental Awareness and Education ("Environmental Education Training and National Conference"), Maguindanaoan Development Foundation Inc. ("Advocacy for the Conservation and Management of the Ligawasan Marsh"), Children for Breastfeeding ("Mobilizing Children for Earth Friendly parenting"), Institute of Social Order ("Coral Reef Champions ") and Bantay Kalikasan ("Establishment of Scientific Gardens in the La Mesa Biodiversity and Nature Park").

The Center for Environmental Awareness & Education (CEAE) and its Environmental Education Training and National Conference project will receive a total of P493,000 grants fund. CEAE has been a recipient of the Ford Conservation and Environmental Grants Program for three years. For 2004, CEAE would like to continue in its mission of making environmental education available to every educator and student in the Philippines through the conference. The grants fund will set up Environmental Education Training Centers in El Nido, Palawan, Baguio City, Leyte and Baler, Aurora and bring educators together for the national conference.

Conserving and managing the Ligawasan Marsh earned for the Maguindanaoan Development Foundation Inc. (MDFI) a P350,000 grant. In 2002, MDFI received a grant for the development of IEC materials for the advocacy project. MDFI is continuing its effort to conserve the marsh as a premier wetland in the country by conducting various trainings and workshops. Funds for this year are also allocated to develop and produce video documentaries to be used in their training activities.

Another recipient is the Children for Breastfeeding group, which received a P300,000 grant for its project to promote sound traditional and environment-friendly ways of nurturing kids via the revival of a breastfeeding culture and the use of baby slings. The grants money will be used to purchase equipment for their resource center and facilitate parent consultation and peer facilitation training.

A P500,000 grant was awarded to the ABS-CBN Foundation’s Bantay Kalikasan for its project to establish a scientific garden at the La Mesa Biodiversity and Nature Park. The garden will be developed in the La Mesa Forest for educational purposes and will serve as a gene bank. The grants money will be used to segregate five hectares for the garden, which is expected to attract thousands of visitors (mostly schoolchildren) when the park opens, and for planting materials, planting care and protection.

Rounding up the list of grantees is the Institute of Social order’s "Coral Reef Champions" project which aims to promote coral reef protection among various organizations and individuals through information, education and communication campaigns in Camarines Norte and Panukulan. Ford awarded the organization with P304,700 to launch the Coral Reef Champions Project and to help promote the protection of coral reef systems and development and reproduction of information materials.

Judges for this year’s Ford ecogrants program are: Assistant Secretary Raymond Mendoza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Dean Tony Alcantara of the UP Los Baños School of Environment and Management, Roman Floresca, Environment editor of The Philippine STAR, and actress, environmentalist and Time Magazine Asian heroine Chin-Chin Gutierrez.

Projects were chosen based on the following criteria: Usefulness and practicality (40 percent), financial needs (20 percent), replicability (20 percent), dedication (10 percent) and originality (10 percent).

The Ford Conservation and Environment Grands Program follows the Henry Ford Conservation Awards, which has been running for 20 years. Since its launch, over 22,000 projects involving 120,000 people and organizations in 60 countries throughout Europe, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Middle East. The program is now on its fourth year in Southeast Asia.