The Philippines post-pandemic vows to pursue resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities as it prepares a portfolio of environmental projects for consideration under the 8th iteration of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-8).
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said the Philippines is allocated over $52 million (roughly P2.83 billion) worth of funding from the foundation, the largest such allocation for the Philippines to date.
According to the GEF, the bulk or $45.51 million of the allocation is reserved for biodiversity projects, another $5.45 million for climate change and the remaining $1.8 million for land degradation.
“The healthy planet, healthy people framework at the heart of the overall global GEF-8 architecture, emphasizes the critical connection between humanity and the environment – thus the importance of urgent environmental threats reduction and protection of our natural resources to improve human well-being,” Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, DENR Secretary said, at a multi-stakeholder dialogue last week.
Loyzaga said the Philippines will work with the GEF in strengthening national commitments and institutionalizing capacities to translate these commitments to meaningful actions to support sustainable development since the GEF-8 calls for a systematic and transformational strategy that responds to the urgency of raising global climate ambition.
Under GEF-8, member countries are encouraged to move more of their programming through 11 integrated programs including food systems; landscape restoration; clean and healthy ocean; circular solutions to plastic pollution; elimination of hazardous chemicals from supply chains; net-zero, nature-positive accelerator; sustainable cities; greening infrastructure development, and wildlife conservation for development.
Projects under GEF-8 are implemented by national government agencies, local government units, development partners, non-government and people’s organizations, scientific institutions, the academe and other stakeholders during the four-year cycle covering 2023 to 2026.
The DENR also said GEF-funded projects are expected to realign private sector capital to achieve a wider scale and impact, empower local communities to harness their resources and capacities to protect livelihoods, uplift socio-economic conditions and enhance resilience.
It likewise said that since 1992, the GEF is one of the major driving forces allowing the country to derive global environmental benefits with a total of 128 funded projects across five focal areas of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, land degradation, chemicals and waste and international waters.
