Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Antonia Loyzaga highlighted the importance of a Resiliency Framework for Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) in helping vulnerable communities to climate change and natural disasters during the Visayas leg of the DENR Multistakeholder Forum in Iloilo City on January 18.

The DENR Chief said the inputs of stakeholders from the national and local governments, academe, civil society, and private sector on potential strategies on environmental protection and natural resource management were all vital in the completion of the framework that will provide the DENR with a comprehensive approach towards adaptive and resilient communities.

“The Resiliency Framework has been developing over time, because based on what we have seen, it is not enough to bounce back from disaster. It is more important for us to bounce forward. What this means is, we recognize the vulnerable communities – of those who are exposed whether it is the ecosystems, people, industrial systems. Then, we approach this in a systemic way,” Loyzaga said.

She added that resilience is not just about coping and adapting, but also having the ability to reorganize and regenerate the ecosystems to fully support the communities and the development plans for the country.

“It’s really about harnessing all of these ridge-to-reef systems, and bringing them into fruition in terms of what they give to the development of the region overall, so that’s several regions altogether,” Loyzaga said.

The framework will serve as the foundation for science-based and data-driven ENR policies. With this, Loyzaga further explained that the role of the DENR now is to recognize how the environment underpins the resilience of all the different ecosystems.

In line with the Department’s mission, DENR will focus on the different dimensions of development, prioritize those dimensions, develop the social, environmental, and economic, and begin to foresee the risks that the Department, within its mandate, can actually address.

The completion of the Resiliency Framework for ENR is currently underway as it will be produced out of the DENR’s series of multistakeholder forums which successfully began in Manila in October last year. The Visayas leg in Iloilo City was held in January 18 to 19, 2023.

Its Mindanao leg is scheduled on February 2-3 this year in Cagayan de Oro City.###