YEAR 1 QUARTER 1

The Los Baños kick-off conducted on December 21, 2021 invited municipal and provincial offices from Region IV-A (CALABARZON). Similar to the Baroro kick-off, this meeting was held to primarily introduce the WILUP project and promote the use of the R2R/WEM concept to land-use planning not only to the pilot-site (Los Baños, Laguna) but also the neighboring provinces. However, concerns raised in the open forum were mostly regarding the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Los Baños LGU and the WILUP Project. An observation was also mentioned by one of the participants where they stated that the R2R framework for integration of prescribed plans missed the Environmental Management Plan that every LGU should craft.

The virtual webinar was organized in collaboration with the Philippine Climate Change Commission (CCC) inviting LGUs, NGAs, NGOs/CSOs, Academe, students and many others with a total of 1294 registered participants and 639 attendees based on the post-webinar assessment. Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman, the Vice Chairperson and Executive Director of the Climate Change Commission (CCC) and Director Reynaldo Ebora of Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) were requested to give the opening remarks for the event while Chancellor Jose Camacho of the University of the Philippines Los Baños gave the closing remarks.

Three speakers were invited to discuss various topics relating to watershed-based land use planning. The first speaker, Dr. Eduardo Mangaoang, the Director of Regional Climate Change Research and Development Center of the Visayas State University discussed about watershed systems and climate change and presented his findings from the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

The second topic on Watershed Management and Watershed Ecosystem Approach to updating of CLUP, FLUP and other Sectoral Development Plans was discussed by the WILUP watershed expert, Dr. Rex Victor Cruz, together with the concept and key component activities of the project. The final topic was presented by Mr. Sealtiel C. Patiño, Development Management Officer III of the Strategic Partnership Division of the CCC, where he talked about the current guidelines on watershed and R2R integration in the CLUP and zoning.

During the open forum, one of the issues raised was finding a systematic way to identify the watershed of a locality which can be done through GIS to help in the delineation of boundaries. The issue of overlapping areas and claims over IP lands and conflicting zoning with CADT were also discussed where presenting the legal basis of their lands and showing that they are part of a bigger landscape (i.e. watershed) on which they rely for their livelihood can be communicated and understood. Local and IP knowledge is also very important in harnessing a good science-based approach. Capacity building for LGUs such as training on quantitative hydrology and watershed management can be held in coordination with NGAs which can be attended by interested LGUs.

The WILUP team and Ms. Deanie Lyn Ocampo, Executive Director of the Caucus of Development NGO (CODE-NGO) organized a meeting via ZOOM platform to discuss about the WILUP project and the possible areas for collaboration. Along with Ms. Deanie, Mr. Sandino Soliman, the Program Advocacy Officer from the CODE-NGO also participated in the meeting as a representative. During the meeting, CODE-NGO suggested that the passage of the National Land Use Act should also be part of the advocacy of the project. Ms. Deanie stated that there is an urgent need for civil service organizations to make efforts for climate change adaptation. CODE-NGO also mentioned that they would like to do pilot-testing through some of their CSO members and suggested conducting a learning session with the WILUP team.

The virtual kick-off meeting for the San Gabriel, La Union pilot site was held in cooperation with another DOST-PCAARRD funded project titled “Integration of Traditional and Modern Bioproduction Systems for a Sustainable and Resilient Future under Climate and Ecosystem Changes (ITMoB)” with a total of 58 attendees from the project implementers, municipalities surrounding the Baroro Watershed, Provincial Government of La Union (PGLU), and representatives of the invited regional offices. This event aimed to introduce and discuss the convergence of the two instrumental projects from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Governor Francisco Ortega III, the College of Forestry and Natural Resources Dean Marlo Mendoza, and Vice Governor Mario Eduardo Ortega were among who gave their opening and welcome remarks while San Gabriel Municipal Mayor Herminigildo Velasco delivered the closing remarks.

Some of the issues discussed in the meeting included the involvement of DPWH in the synergy and addressing the problem of counterproductive projects as several projects from the DPWH are not aligned with the existing projects in Baroro. Dr. Rex answered that DPWH is part of the key players in WILUP and by National Government Agencies (NGAs) working together at a CLUP level with watershed as the framework. The project leaders had also discussed that the development of CLUP can be done together with the development of Watershed plan. Map outputs will be shared and the determination of traditional and modern bioproduction systems will be in consultation with the PGLU and other stakeholders.

The WILUP team conducted a series of meetings with the Philippine Climate Change Commission at least once every month since the first meeting on September 7, 2021. The meetings were conducted to help establish the partnership between the project and the agency. The initial meetings served to introduce the project and the team members of each group. 

In attendance from the WILUP team were Dr. Vida Carandang, Dr. Rex Cruz, Dr. Catherine De Luna, Mrs. Glenda Alcachupas, For. Paola Burcer and Ms. Pandora Albayda while Ms. Farah Sevilla attended as a representative from PCAARRD.  From CCC were Division chief Alexis Lapiz, Mr. Sealtiel Patino, Ms. Cari Espesin, Ms. Harriet Tauli, Mr. Erwin Husmalaga, Mr. Ralph Jumawid, Ms. Danielle Toralba attended as representatives. 

The latter part of the meetings was done to jointly organize a webinar event proposed by the CCC titled “Webinar on Watershed Approach to Integrated Land Use Planning for Local Government Units (LGU)” which was the first national policy forum on WILUP to discuss the use of R2R/WEM framework in land use planning. Throughout the period for the webinar preparation, the WILUP team has been in contact with CCC through a Viber Chat group. After the event proper, post-webinar assessment and tasks were discussed during the later meetings.