Ongoing Projects

Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Watershed Management and Upland Farming in the Philippines

Being an archipelagic country composed of 7,000 islands, the Philippines is highly vulnerable to climate change hazards. The most vulnerable sectors are upland farmers who rely on rainfall for their supply of water. Flooding is also a regular threat as a result of tropical storms compounded by degraded watersheds. To help the local farmers adapt to climate change, there is a need to generate significant amount of information on climate change adaptation to watershed resources and upland farms which can be useful for decision making by national policy makers and local stakeholders.

The project's overall goal is to promote climate change adaptation by upland farmers and watershed managers t the national and local levels in the Philippines.

Assessment of Land Use Options and Estimation of the Total Economic Value of and Communities' Opportunity Costs in Mt. Matalingahan Watershed.

The objectives of the project are the following:

• Review and assess the optimality of existing and planned land-uses in balancing development demands with biodiversity protection;

• Facilitate the updating of municipal land use plans and other relevant plans encompassed by the projects sites (including the Physical Framework Plan of SPPA to incorporate changes in ECAN zoning and other derived plans in pursuit of establishing Mt. Matalingahan Range;

• Assess the opportunity cost of the communities that will be affected by the establishment of core zones; and

• Determine the management costs of protecting critical habitats within the protected areas.

Carbon dioxide and Sequestration in the Mirant Reforestation Projects in Quezon, Philippines

Climate change or the increase of the earth's atmospheric temperature (global warming) is one of the most pressing issues today. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons absorb thermal radiation emitted by earth's surface. Thus, rising concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could lead to changes in the world's climate. The consequences of this change are disastrous. For instance, changes in climatic patterns are predicted to dislocate much of the world's population.

Among greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the most abundant. Forest ecosystems play an important role in climate change problem because they can both be sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide. They can be managed to assimilate carbon dioxide via photosynthesis and store carbon in biomass and in soil. Great attention is focused on tropical forestry to offset carbon emissions due to its cost effectiveness, high potential rates of carbon uptake, and associated environmental and social benefits. In the Philippines, studies conducted by the Environmental Forestry Programme (ENFOR) of UPLB have shown the potential of various lands uses to store and sequester carbon. This study is designed to estimate the carbon storage and sequestration rate of the Carbon Sink Reforestation Project being implemented by Mirant Philippines in the upland reforestation site at the Binahaan watershed in Pagbilao and mangrove amelioration areas in Pagbilao and Padre Burgos, Quezon.

Quantifying Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Secondary Forest and tree plantations of Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve

Climate change or more popularly known as global warming is defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a change in climate attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere in addition to natural climate variability observed over the comparable time periods (IPCC, 1995). This is brought about by the building up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons. Greenhouse gases absorb thermal radiation emitted by the earth's surface thus, rising concentrations of such gases in the atmosphere leads to global warming.

The IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR) states that concentration of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere has tremendously increased since 1750. Based on estimates, its concentration has increased 46 ppb or 17%. Sources of nitrous oxides include ocean, NH₃ oxidation in the atmosphere, forest soils, agricultural soils, biomass burning, industrial sources, and cattle and feedlots. Of the mentioned sources, about 61% was contributed by the natural sources which include the soils of the forest ecosystem.

Funding Agency

The primary goal of the project is to develop a strategy to assess the overall implementation of the IIWMP vis a vis a approved Lower Agno Watershed Comprehensive Management Plan (LAWCMP) as to its performance and effectiveness as well as to draw recommendations for the various stakeholders sustainable implementation. Specifically, the project aims to achieve the following:

• To develop a clear framework plan for review of the IIWMP;

• To assess the accomplishment of IIWMP relative to its objectives and targets;

• To ascertain the extent to which achievement of the IIWMP's objectives has contributed to the alleviation of poverty, improvement of forest condition and water quality and other key environmental and socio-economics impacts;

• To identify strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of IIWMP; and

• To propose specific measures on how to remedy imperfections of past implementation phase and ensure the sustainability of subsequent implemtation of IIWMP.

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