In photo: EU Ambassador Véron meets with local radio to discuss role of women in natural resources governance
The EU Ambassador, H.E. Luc Véron, is on a 2-day visit to Quezon province and will meet with mayors, women leaders and civil society organisations in Real, Infanta, and General Nakar. The visit will focus on the Women Go and Forest Governance projects, implemented by the civil society organization Haribon Foundation and funded by the European Union. It is timed in celebration of the Women’s Month! Quezon province is greatly affected by typhoons and building up resilience is a priority for the province.
The EU Ambassador will meet with women leaders of Kalipunan ng Liping Pilipina (KALIPI) Federations and Organizations and Kilos Unlad ng Mamamayan ng REAL (KUMARE), and visit projects’ activities, like trainings and livelihood activities. He will also meet with the Mayor of Infanta HE Filipina Grace R. America, Mayor of General Nakar, HE Eliseo R. Ruzol, and Mayor of Real, HE Diana Abigail D. Aquino, as well as the Community, Environment and Natural Resources Officer of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Ambassador Véron highlights that “women are key actors in the inclusive and sustainable management of natural resources in the Philippines”. He adds that “the EU is determined to act on the gender dimension of environmental degradation and climate change and wants to contribute to promoting girls’ and women’s participation and leadership, through support to civil society organizations’ initiatives like the project implemented by Haribon”. In addition, “forests play a very significant role in the context of climate change by absorbing CO2, by helping prevent floods, retaining water for domestic use and agriculture and providing various sources of livelihood. It is why the EU supports forest governance actions.”
The Women Go project (‘Enhancing the Role of Women in Protected Area Governance for Social Change’) aims to increase the level of influence and leadership of rural women in the governance of protected areas and in sustainable programs on Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction and livelihood. The regional Forest Governance project (‘Strengthening Non-State Actor Involvement in Forest Governance in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea’) aims to increase participation of forest dependent communities in forest governance and policy processes, to effectively contribute to forest management and land use planning, across three Key Biodiversity Area sites, including Mount Irid-Angelo, in Sierra Madre.
The activities to be visited by the Ambassador are: training on Environmental Leadership and Organizational Development for women leaders, a Gender Sensitivity and Natural Resource Management Training Workshop for women leaders and their husbands, a Lemongrass planting site as the livelihood project of KALIPI Cawayan, in Real, and a Native and Fruit-bearing Tree Nursery site of the Forest Guard group SANAMAGMA, in Infanta, as part of their forest monitoring activities and as alternative source of income to their members and community.
Ambassador Véron will have the opportunity to plant kamagong and narra seedlings at the Native and Fruit-bearing Tree Nursery site. Kamagong and narra are endemic hardwood trees, which are both vulnerable in the country. The planting of these seedlings symbolizes the efforts made to conserve the environment and the forests that protect community members from floods, provide sources of livelihood and help in the fight against climate change.