Collaboration and cooperation between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has been expanded in scope to include nature-based solutions (NBS) to conserve, manage and restore ecosystems and biodiversity, and to help reduce the impacts of climate change. The partnership between the DENR and EDC has been formalized through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between DENR Secretary Antonia Loyzaga and EDC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Federico Lopez.
The MOA between the DENR and EDC, signed last July, broadens the partnership beyond the rescue and protection of more native tree species, saving them from extinction. Under the agreement, DENR and EDC will work together to restore denuded forests and other habitats, preserve and propagate threatened native species, and safeguard ecosystem services and biodiversity that protects against climate change.
On top of that, the DENR and EDC will conduct a stocktaking of NBS-related data, studies, methodologies, and policies; conduct a joint assessment of candidate NBS sites; and formulate the social, technical, biophysical, commercial, and other criteria to assess possible NBS sites, taking into consideration the opportunities for ecosystem conservation and restoration.
The DENR shall use its natural resources database to identify areas with minimal physical, legal, climate and social risks that are appropriate for restoration or conservation, and provide necessary information, including technical, legal and social information to assess the viability of the sites for the project, among others. On the other hand, EDC shall conduct feasibility studies on ecosystem development and carbon product opportunities among the candidate NBS sites. It shall also provide resources for the development and implementation of the project, and hold regular coordination meetings to report on the progress of the project, among others.
“This is a really unique opportunity to showcase how the government and the private sector can work together. There are definitely shared values and we have goals that we both pursue jointly,” Loyzaga said.
The DENR-EDC partnership also aims to promote public-private collaboration on the conservation and expansion of natural habitats through encouraging private sector participation to amplify government efforts, and formulating a one-stop-shop process to facilitate and ensure the successful implementation of local NBS projects.
“Our MOA is quite instrumental and it’s a great step that we’re all doing this together because I think the one phrase that we always like to hear is, ‘we can’t do these things alone. That’s why we’re always looking for collaborative pathways so that we can all come together to get to the same goals,” said Lopez.
EDC—the world’s second largest producer of geothermal power and the largest renewable energy firm in the country, has been one of DENR’s committed environmental partners. In 2019, it worked together with DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau and launched the “Native Plants of Boracay Wetlands,” a reference manual on forest restoration that served as a useful tool for the government’s National Greening Program.
Last year, EDC partnered with the DENR to collaborate on Project TRANSFORM or the Transdisciplinary Approach for Resilience and Environmental Sustainability through Multistakeholder Engagement, a resilience and sustainability program for local government units. The EDC has been collaborating with regional and community DENR offices through its BINHI program, the largest private-sector led forest restoration initiative in the Philippines. ###
