Experts to meet in Tagaytay City on environment issues

Marvyn N. Benaning
Manila Bulletin
Tuesday, March 4, 2008


Nearly 350 leading environmentalists, policymakers, health workers, activists, agricultural leaders, and development managers will convene at the Taal Vista Lodge in Tagaytay City from March 5-7 to map out strategies in addressing crucial population, health, and environment issues like climate change, biodiversity conservation, public health, and land use degradation.

To be led by Conservation International (CI), the conference will build on two consensus documents, the 2004 Antipolo Declaration and 2006 Cebu Accord, and will have Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose L. Atienza Jr. as guest of honor and panelist.

The conference seeks a crucial link among population, health and environment, saying the earth’s natural resources and systems and its human populations are inherently connected.

Organizers said the conference would focus on the theme "Scaling up Integrated Population, Health and Environment" to expand, strengthen and advance integrated population, health and environment policy and program interventions in the country.

"This is a real breakthrough, a real opportunity for the development community to successfully fight crucial challenges of our times including climate change, land use degradation, biodiversity loss, and biodiversity conservation," said CI country executive director Romeo Trono.

"Parties have recognized the urgency of sectorwide and multidisciplinary action on conservation efforts and are now more eager to translate these into actions to what data and scientific research have been telling us is needed," he added.

"No single intervention can address our problems that are becoming more complex every day. The health of our natural resources depends on the state of the well being of Filipino families and vice versa. In ensuring this balance, we need a gamut of perspectives and interventions," Trono explained

The Philippines, one of the world’s biologically richest countries, is also one of the most endangered areas. Largely logged over, Philippine forests today are being cleared for farming and development needs to sustain a ballooning population.

In 2004, CI–Philippines published its scientific research entitled ‘Mapping Population Biodiversity Connections in the Philippines’ scrutinizing the relationship between population and environment.

The study revealed that a high population density is associated with low forest cover and that places with high forest cover rates are most likely to attract migrants.

The study also concluded that high deforestation rate is associated with high poverty incidence.

The conference is a biannual activity of the PHE Network – a coalition of more than 20 development national and global development actors.

The third conference is bringing the world’s most renowned leaders from across the nation and round the globe including those from the United States, Ethiopia, Nepal, Madagascar and Costa Rica.

Aside from Atienza, the other guests are: Population Reference Bureau (PRB) director Richard Skolnik; CI program director Janet Edmond; venture capitalist Oscar Lopez; journalist Frank Cimatu; Miss Earth-Philippines 2006 Catherine Untalan; Undersecretary Austere Panadero of the Department of Interior and Local Government; broadcast journalist Jay Taruc; Cavite Rep. Crispin Remulla; Health Secretary Francisco Duque III; House Special Committee on the Millennium Development Goals chairwoman Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, and Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham Tolentino.

The US-based PRB, David and Lucille Packard Foundation and Ventures Strategies in Health and Development are supporting the conference.