LOS BAÑOS, Laguna: A climate change resiliency project was recently approved for implementation by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD).
Titled, Development of Decision Support System for Enhancing Climate Change Resiliency of Smallholder Upland Farmers in Selected Communities of CALABARZON, Philippines, the PCAARRD-funded project will run for three years with a P4.9 million budget.
To formally start the project, an inception meeting was recently conducted at the Institute of Agroforestry (IAF), College of Forestry and Natural Resources (CFNR), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).
The members of the project team, composed of members of the faculty and staff from IAF and the Institute of Renewable Natural Resources (IRNR), representatives from the Forestry and Environment Research Division (FERD-PCAARRD), and other participants, joined the meeting.
Led by UPLB-IRNR Professor Dr. Robert G. Visco, the project aims to develop a decision support system that will lead towards building climate change resilient farming communities in CALABARZON. To achieve this, the project will conduct the following activities:
• assessing biophysical characteristics and socio-economic features of selected watershed areas in CALABARZON;
• developing a GIS-based agroforestry land capability mapping/classification scheme (ALCAMS);
• determining potential impacts of climate change on land capability distribution;
• enhancing technical capabilities of selected communities and LGUs in climate proofing of GIS-based ALCAMS; and
• recommending adaptation strategies to farming communities for higher climate change-resiliency.
The five identified project sites are the five subwatersheds in CALABARZON, namely, Sariaya, Silang, Tanay, Rosario, and Nagcarlan.
The role of researchers, implementing agency, and funding agency, as well as the time frame of project implementation, were clarified based on PCAARRD guidelines during the meeting.
The project is expected to serve as a tool in zoning of land uses for better planning and to provide valuable insights to enhance the effective implementation of the Council’s Industry Strategic S&T Program on Climate Change.