The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) kicked-off ‘Brown Bag Sessions’ within the agency, as part of its drive to enhance the knowledge base of DENR officials and employees through sharing of best practices by experts and practitioners. The first DENR ‘Brown Bag Session’ focused on Nature-Based Solutions for Climate and Disaster Resilience with First Philippine Holdings Chief Sustainability Officer Agnes de Jesus, and Naeeda Crishna Morgado, Senior Infrastructure Specialist for Innovation and Green Finance for the Southeast Asia at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as guest speakers.

“These brown bag sessions are really about the science, technology, engineering and innovations for the future that we want,” Environment Secretary Antonia Loyzaga said. “These will improve our work to enhance what we know and enrich our knowledge base.”

During the first ‘Brown Bag Session,’ De Jesus shared her insights on the conglomerate’s experience with Nature-Based Solutions, focusing on subsidiary Energy Development Corporation (EDC). She cited some approaches that EDC uses such as planting native trees and leading the replanting of degraded forest areas in various sites under its BINHI Program, where they planted rare, threatened, hardwood and native species. This included the Mt. Apo afforestation, which brought back its rich biodiversity. De Jesus added that they organized forest communities, wherein alternative livelihoods were provided to support host communities.

Morgado, for her part, noted that Southeast Asia is facing a dual crisis to combat climate change and finance climate actions, while addressing a natural capital crisis, which can be seen in how the forestlands and biodiversity are impacted by conversion or extension of agricultural lands. With this, she presented a case study on sustainable coastal and marine fisheries in Cambodia to address declining fish stock due to overexploitation.

Wrapping-up the session was DENR Assistant Secretary Noralene Uy who discussed the advocacy of the DENR for nature-based solutions as one way of mitigating the impacts of climate change.

The DENR leadership hopes to organize ‘Brown Bag Sessions’ open to all DENR employees. These sessions are designed for all DENR employees to learn from experts in practices related to environment and natural resources management.