The Department of Environment and Natural Resources gathered under one roof at least 40 chief executives of local government units which shared best practices in becoming ‘resilience champions’ during the Project TRANSFORM Colloquium held on June 20 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

“Project TRANSFORM puts local government units (LGUs) at the center of community-based disaster resilience programs. The critical role of local stakeholders in environmental protection and climate action cannot be minimized,” DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga said during the Colloquium.

In developing Project TRANSFORM, DENR partnered with the National Resilience Council, First Philippine Holdings Corporation, Philippine Business for Social Progress, Peace and Equity Foundation, and the Zuellig Family Foundation. TRANSFORM is an acronym for Transdisciplinary Approach for Resilience and Environmental Sustainability through Multistakeholder Engagement. The colloquium theme is “From Science to Action: Transformative Pathways toward Resilience and Environmental Sustainability.”

TRANSFORM provides a scientific, strategic mechanism among stakeholders and highlights the importance of locally-driven solutions as well as a participatory approach for achieving environmental sustainability and resilience, the DENR Secretary said.
Loyzaga emphasized the need to prioritize the development of individual and institutional capacities of local government units (LGUs) for evidence-informed decision-making, and to invest in increasing capacity for implementation of policies, plans and programs

Loyzaga gave credit to the provinces of Bataan and Rizal, Ormoc City, and the municipality of Siargao for their successful implementation of Project TRANSFORM.

Project TRANSFORM intends to contribute to the preservation of ecosystem integrity to support food, water, energy security as well as public health; the enhancement of human well-being; and the achievement of development continuity which is free from disruptions caused by different hazards and disasters and the achievement of inclusive economic growth.

Loyzaga said that strong multistakeholder collaboration, community-driven innovation and knowledge development and sharing will help attain community resilience.

“While every LGU has its different exposure and vulnerability, all experience challenges on how to manage their water, forest and soil resources, and coastal and marine environments,” Loyzaga pointed out.

To achieve broader development goals, the DENR has helped its partner LGUs in integrating climate change and resilience into local planning, programming and implementation, ensuring that any intervention that has been developed must be practical, inclusive and context-driven to benefit communities.

“These interventions were developed based on a thorough assessment, vulnerability and capacity analysis, and stakeholder assessment. This approach was taken to ensure that whatever interventions were programmed were based on science and actual needs locally. And that the challenges are addressed not just for the immediate, but they are addressed strategically,” Loyzaga said.

During the Colloquium, Bataan Governor Jose Enrique S. Garcia III shared the resilience journey of his province.

Launched on May 9, 2023, Project TRANSFORM offered Bataan a whole-of-society approach to building resilience and sustainability.
“We are able to engage more than forty partners from the government, business, academic and civil society sectors. Under Project TRANSFORM, these partners have contributed technical assistance and mobilized resources to help the province implement its adaptation strategies,” said Garcia.

Among the strategies co-developed with the province is the Barangay Resilience Bingo Scorecard (BRBS) for risk education and communication. BRBS is an incentive program that aims to measure the resiliency and strength of every barangay against climate and disaster risks. To date, 185 out of 237 barangays have participated in the BRBS.

Together with the DENR, Bataan is also developing its 1Bataan Base Map, a geodatabase that helps the province accurately identify all land classifications, including public lands — alienable and disposable, protected areas, national parks, water conservation areas, ancestral domains and other idle lands.

The base map can help avert disasters with its capability to accurately identify sites that can be used for housing and resettlement of households living in hazard-prone areas, and provide much-needed transparency and accurate inventory to solve problems and confusion from data inaccuracy pertaining to land acquisition.

For Ormoc City, the pilot site of Project TRANSFORM, Mayor Lucy Torres-Gomez shared that the city has been implementing projects in pursuit of resilience and environmental sustainability since 2021. Gomez said its localized sustainability and resilience program was boosted by the DENR to offer higher-level solutions to raising ecological integrity and improving socio-economic conditions for the city and surrounding municipalities.

“We live by our idea that we must take care of the very services that nature has so unselfishly provided for us to survive, and these are air, water and soil. We must take care of the things that are fundamentally sustaining our city. In this task to take care of nature, Ormoc City is ever so grateful to have found the right guidance and have the most supportive allies,” said Torres.

For Ormoc City, Project TRANSFORM introduced biodiversity profiling for species conservation and economic purposes; greenhouse gas accounting to trickle down awareness to the barangay level; financial literacy programs to educate stakeholders in the basics of financial audit disaster and resource allocation, disaster risk management capacity building activities to increase awareness of disaster, hazards and vulnerability, and disaster response; and nature-based solutions to protect the city’s ecosystem services.

Project TRANSFORM is the DENR’s concrete response to the urgent need to develop long-term strategies for achieving environmental sustainability and resilience through the active engagement of all sectors of society. It serves as a model for national and local coherence and convergence. Project TRANSFORM was first conceptualized during the DENR Multistakeholder Conference in October 2022. ###