Realizing DReAMS boosts Green Bohol project

By Angeline Valencia

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb. 28 – Green Bohol Project gets the latest boost with the official launching Friday of the Realizing DReAMS (Development Resources and Access to Municipal Services) program, a European Union-funded initiative that trains local leaders and provides technical assistance in coming up with informed decisions and measures to improve the management of environmental resources.

Partner local authorities from six countries sent delegation here for the kick-off meeting on Feb. 24-27 at the Bohol Beach Club in Panglao and visited the municipality of Tubigon, the project’s pilot local authority in the Philippines.

“To jumpstart the project, the kick-off meeting gathered for the first time all the partners –the local authorities of Guntur, India; Thimpu, Bhutan; Rajshahi, Bangladesh; Bologna, Italy; Växjö, Sweden; and Southeast Asia Secretariat, ICLEI South Asia Secretariat, ICLEI Europe Secretariat, and the European Commission in the Philippines; and the Tubigon, Bohol as the project implementor,” according to Provincial Planning and Development coordinator John Titus Vistal, the event’s convenor.

The project partners defined the roles and responsibilities of the entire consortium, outlined the activities of each partner and the timeframe required, and agreed on a common management and communication scheme that will allow Bohol, as implementor, to keep track and report on the progress of the project.

Tubigon Mayor Luna Piezas represented the host local authority, together with Tubigon Vice-Mayor Alfredo Batausa, and Sangguniang Bayan Committee on Environment chair, councilor Marlon Amila; and Ronaldo Arcayos in charge for water, Yolanda Labella for agriculture, Victor Boligao for Coastal Resource Management and Brainardo Boligao for solid waste.

Gov. Erico Aumentado and European Union Ambassador Alistair MacDonald signed the contract for the Realizing DReAMS Project for South and Southeast Asian Local Authorities last year.

The project has been designed to increase awareness on local and regional environmental and socio-economic issues among politicians, decision-makers, and the general public.

In his welcome message during the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Aumentado said the activity just came in time that Bohol had just launched the Green Bohol Project and expected to draw support from the partners of Realizing DReAMS and the International Council for Local Environment Initiatives (ICLEI), who have expertise in environment management.

The Realizing DReAMS Project will “improve the capacity of local authorities in environmental management and reduction of poverty through improved service provision and will improve the awareness on environmental and development issues among local officials”.

It offers unique knowledge exchange in building and strengthening capacities and aimed at improving local governments to effectively address local environment issues, according to the project’s Finance and Contracts Head Holger Rommenn of the European Commission in the Philippines.

Rommenn also said that the project’s biggest challenge would be to deliver results, create inputs and consolidate them into concrete results in the environment of project site to benefit the local government units and stakeholders in the region, “but the ultimate beneficiaries are the citizens who will gain from taxes maximized”.

The project involves non-government organizations, Resident’s Welfare Associations, youth groups, local environmental groups and stakeholder groups- -women, children, disabled and marginalized communities- -who can support, monitor and provide inputs for the better management of the environmental resources.

The governor recognized the success of the reforestation project of Växjö, Sweden in addressing global warming, considering the potential of trees to serve as carbon sink and means to prevent landslides, floods and mitigate the effects of typhoons.

Aumentado also recognized India’s advance technology in transesterification process that turns jatropha oil into bio-diesel.

Aumentado also cited Bohol’s integrated approach in managing water resources, through the Integrated Water Resources System Master Plan funded by AusAID, and the 11-year (2009-2020) IWRM Strategic Plan approved by the Provincial Development Council on Jan. 6, 2009.

The governor also told the foreign delegates that the provincial government “signed a memorandum of agreement with the ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. Bantay Kalikasan and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to rehabilitate and reforest major watersheds in the province which could generate jobs, livelihood, eco and adventure tourism, and economic activities in Bohol’s two major watershed areas with a combined area of about 30,000 hectares”.

The MOA covers the “Abatan Watershed that will be tapped for a sustainable supply of water for Tagbilaran City and Metro Tagbilaran and the island paradise of Panglao as well as for hydro power generation; and the Loboc River Watershed which is supporting the three major hydroelectric power plants in the province, one of which is being funded by DBP.

Aumentado also said the “Asian Development Bank is funding the rehabilitation of the Wahig Watershed which provides water for our major irrigation facilities in the northeastern basin, irrigating about 11,000 hectares of rice lands”.

Future plans include harnessing the Cantakoy Falls in Inabanga River for a 7.2-megawatt hydroelectric plant and Sinakayanan River, a tributary of the Upper Abatan River, for a 3.5 MW plant, with the partnership among Santa Clara Power International, the Bohol Electric Cooperative, the provincial povernment and the local government units of Danao and Inabanga.

“This ambitious watershed rehabilitation program is our humble contribution to the fight against global warming and to mitigate the effects of climate change. The reforested areas serve as the carbon sink, as well as generate jobs and livelihood for our people under our program of environmental economics for poverty reduction. It is a component of our Green Bohol program,” Aumentado said.

On the green power technology, the governor said he had a meeting early last week with representatives of Barbadonis Oy of Finland, who proposed a US$ 300-million investment in Bohol’s timberland and jatropha projects.

The consortium of Finnish investors will develop 10,000 hectares of timberland with initial target of 5,000 hectares within the Inabanga Watershed.

“The initial objective for jatropha plantation is 10,000 hectares in the towns of Danao, Dagohoy and San Miguel. Under the set-up, the various cooperatives and people’s organizations organized by BPRMO, which are registered with the Cooperative Development Authority, will be harnessed for the project,” according to the governor.

Meanwhile, the PLDT Foundation corporate social responsibility-funded P1.5 million jatropha project will become a component of Bohol’s economic enterprise as coordinated by the governor’s chief of staff and BPRMO chief Antonieto Pernia and May Limbaga, the AusAID scholar on economic enterprise in Australia.

Aumentado also cited South Korea’s proposed P4.8 billion investment on seaweeds bio-ethanol production through Biolsystems, Inc.

These investments support the Green Bohol program as they would produce bio-ethanol, biomass and other green energy.

Bohol can learn from Växjö’s efficient energy management that saved 35 percent carbon monoxide per resident in 1993-2008 and utilize 56 percent of energy from renewable sources in 2008.

Växjö’s campaign succeeded in convincing 46 percent of the families not to own a car in 2006 statistics, while 80 percent of its residents regard themselves as “environmentally aware” in the 2008 survey.

Växjö, Sweden was represented in the gathering by Environmental Officer Anders Lundgren and Councilor Patric Svensson.

Other delegations of partner-local authorities were Commissioner Dr. Ilambarithi Kunjithapatham, Mayor Mohan Salkrishna Rayapati, and Deputy Commissioner Lakshmi Narayana Konda of from Guntur, India; from Stung Treng, Cambodia- -Vice-Governor Veth Chhay and wife, Dany Srey, and senior expert Sovannora Leng; from Thimpu, Bhutan- -City Committee Chair and Secretary Nima Wangdi, Executive Secretary Phuntsho Gyeltshen, and Chief Environmental Officer Gyelthshen Dukpa; from Rajshahi, Bangladesh- -Executive Engr. Golam Murshed, Councilor Abdul Hamid Sarka, and Councilor Md. Shahidul Islam (Pintu).

Others delegations were Project Officers Pamela Lama and Raffaella Gueze of Bologna, Italy; and for ICLEI Southeast Asia secretariat- -Regional Director Vic Aquitania, Rhea Rose Victoria, and Romille Alberto; for ICLEI South Asia Secretariat- -Regional Director Bharani Visweswara Kumar Emani and Sustainability Manager Bedoshruti Sadhukhan; and for ICLEI Europe Secretariat – -Project Officers Daniel Morchain and Barbara Anton.

Composing the European Commission in the Philippines are Finance and Contracts Head Holger Rommenn, Program Officer Virginie Lafleur Tighe, and Finance and Contracts Officer Michelin Alvarez. (PNA) RMA/Angeline Valencia/jsd

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