San Vicente, Palawan: The rise of the ecotown
An ecotown is a town resilient to climate change and ready for disasters. If San Vicente does this right, it will become the next Philippine tourist destination.
MANILA, Philippines – San Vicente town in Palawan is ready to be an ecotown – a locality that is resilient to the impacts of climate change and is well prepared for disaster. (READ: 5 steps to disaster-ready, climate-resilient communities)
An untapped paradise for beach bums, San Vicente boasts 22 islands and islets with fine white sand beaches, azure-blue waters, abundant rainforest, and exotic biodiversity. It's population of more than 30,000 make a living mostly from fishing and agriculture.
It is not spared, however, from the ravages of climate change and global warming.
At the Greeneration Summit organized by the Climate Change Commission on Monday, November 25, San Vicente officials and CCC presented the two phases of assessments they conducted in the last two years – the first crucial steps to its transformation as an ecotown.
The assessments, which cost P2.5 million to conduct, produced data that can now help San Vicente identify which climate change adapation projects they should prioritize – from building more weather stations to launching a public health campaign.
To achieve this, the CCC and San Vicente LGU worked with international organization Global Green Growth Institute which provided technical expertise and funding.
In an earlier interview with Rappler, Jesse Velete, a San Vicente official looking over the process, said their town has completed the first two phases of the program:
1. Natural resource assessment – identifies the town's natural resources like forests, marine ecosystems, flora, fauna, natural gas to come up with an ecological profile. Identifies threats and opportunities based on the profile.
2. Vulnerability assessment – determines which communities, infrastructure, and natural resources are vulnerable to climate change.
It must go through 4 more steps to become a full-fledged ecotown. These steps involve environment and natural resource accounting, implementation of adaptation measures, and getting the funds for building the right infrastructure and building the residents' capacity to adapt to climate change.
The Ecotown Framework is a priority project of the CCC. It applies the National Climate Change Action Plan to local communities with the goal of making them fully climate resilient and disaster-ready by 2028. (READ: The role of LGUs, local councils during disasters)
It does this by creating programs for food security, water sufficiency, ecosystem and environmental stability, human security, sustainable energy, capacity development, and climate-smart industries on the local level.
Next tourism destination
In San Vicente, total annual rainfall from 2011 to 2012 increased by 13.39%. The town is frequented by ever stronger typhoons. Excessive rain leads to flooding in low-lying areas and landslides, destroying crops and washing out soil nutrients needed for farming.
An El Niño phenomenon (the abnormal warming of sea waters) in 2010 caused coral bleaching, damaging more than 10% of its live corals.
These are just some effects of climate change an ecotown can withstand and adapt to.
To be an ecotown means to have fully-integrated climate change adaptation measures in the policies and programs of the local government. It means adjusting and preparing all the town's sectors for climate change impacts like drought, heatwaves, storm surge, and more frequent typhoons.
Because the ecotown program aims to help communities prosper economically while pursuing green programs, the data also points out how San Vicente can achieve their dream of becoming the next Philippine tourist destination.
Read more: http://www.rappler.com/science-nature/44533-san-vicente-palawan-ecotown
