Environment protection: Starting point to uplift the extremely poor

Safeguarding the environment and alleviating poverty are closely knitted issues that can be too complex to embrace and act upon. They can be too heavy an undertaking to take on.

Studies have consistently shown that poverty-stricken areas are extremely vulnerable to the adverse impacts of environmental degradation, like air and water pollution, flooding, landslides, drought, and deforestation. The Philippines Poverty Environment Initiative (PPEI), a joint program led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in fact, says that environmental degradation is not only “hugely damaging [to] the poor’s livelihood,” but also to “the economy as a whole.”

Through the coalition Zero Extreme Poverty 2030 (ZEP 2030), our organization Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE) has committed to help the country’s poor as the lead of the coalition’s Environment cluster.

ZEP 2030, which aims to eradicate poverty in the Philippines by 2030, tackles poverty as a multi-dimensional issue, and has organized itself into clusters corresponding to areas critical to poverty alleviation. These areas are Health, Livelihood, Environment, Education, Agriculture and Fisheries, Housing and Shelter, and Partnerships for Indigenous Peoples.

FPE has long worked with the poorest rural communities in the country. In 2011, we introduced our flagship program, called StarTrek, to bring environmental conservation efforts and social enterprises together. We adopted this approach to encourage communities to practice efforts that are centered on reducing the impact of climate change while establishing a stable and reliable source of livelihood for them.

One of the most notable results of this program was implemented by the Palawan Center for Appropriate Rural Technology (PCART), the StarTrek project implementer in Palawan. They taught communities in the municipality of Roxas and San Vicente in Palawan to apply the Kalabaw-Araro-Suyod farming technique and encourage the adoption of organic farming practices in cultivate rice and premium herbs. This technique is conservation trade-off practice that allows the community to have enough produce while applying appropriate farming technologies, supply, and equipment. In return, they have to protect the nearby delineated forest protection area. The scheme has proved to be pivotal in encouraging participants to address challenges on food and income security while protecting a key biodiversity area.

These efforts have resulted in a marked increase in the average income of the participating families, from P42,000 to as much as P110,000 annually. In addition, the program enhances the sense of responsibility among the communities to protect nearby forest areas, a biodiversity sanctuary.

We helped build confidence within communities to assert their rights and responsibilities as stewards of protected areas when new settlers look their way and explore potential for real estate, agriculture and industrial development, or tourism. Knowing that such development may lead to displacement from their settlements keeps them engaged and participative in the program.

Natural calamities brought by climate change remains a huge threat for these communities as well. For communities near watersheds like Calawis in Antipolo, Rizal, we have partnered with community groups to carry out continuous forest protection and restoration programs to ensure the long-term conservation of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape. These conservation efforts reduce water run offs from the upstream that contribute to the flooding of nearby low-lying areas like Metro Manila and Rizal. We have also worked with the communities to train and educate them on disaster response in the event of flash floods, landslides, and drought.

While our programs are still a work in progress, we can already appreciate the impact of the good they do. We recognize that we can’t do this alone, and a lot more has to be done. We need more groups or organizations who have the capacity, resources, and expertise to reach more of the extremely impoverished communities in far-flung areas of the country.

We need more like-minded people to eradicate extreme poverty in the Philippines.

ZEP 2030 is calling on non-profit institutions, corporate foundations, and advocacy groups to join their cause. To know more about ZEP and its activities, please visit http://zeropovertyph.net/.

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Oliver Agoncillo is the executive director of the Foundation for the Philippine Environment