Collective effort a must to fight climate change

CEBU, Philippines - With the growing global concern on climate change, a recent Environmental Tourism Forum highlighted the collective effort needed to change the present scenario and mitigate the effects that have caused severe damage to the environment.

Experts in the field of environment and tourism explained the important steps needed to be taken to stop climate change during the “Eco-Mismo: The Philippine Conference on Ecotourism and Eco-Productivity” held at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.

Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, chief executive officer of World Wildlife Fund Philippines, shared that recent catastrophes like heavy rainfall and floods could worsen if not immediately addressed.

Tan said that the two storms, Pepeng and Ondoy, that brought a month’s worth of rainfall within six hours wrought havoc in most parts of Luzon. However, he said the damage in the country was minimal compared to heavy storms that hit other countries.         

In his presentation, Tan showed what could possibly happen if the problem will not be resolved adding that coastlines of provinces will be affected and cities such as Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu will be submerged under water.    

Tourism chief Joseph “Ace” Durano for his part, stressed the importance of collaborative effort to address the issue on climate change.

 “For this reason, we deeply value our partnerships with individuals, with leaders, with organizations, and such other individuals, of like mind and heart. I’m really looking forward to keep on expanding this partnership because this is our way of spreading these ideas and showcasing the success stories hoping that this may inspire others to adopt the same development model and spreading the reality to more places in the country,” Durano said.

He said that when the core objective of a development model is aimed at the conservation, preservation, restoration of the environment, a lot more benefits would be seen after including “an empowered community.”

According to Durano, the present scene is that communities see the resources around them to be for a one-time use only but after going through the process, their mindset changes and they see the resources around them as something they can use in the long run.

This, Durano said could produce a new economy that emerges form the said communities which is “a new economy that is more sustainable as compared to the old social and economic structure.”

The Eco-Mismo activity was made possible by the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of peace and development in the country, in partnership with the DOT and DENR.

RPDEV Chairman, Former president of the Philippines Fidel Ramos shared that the big challenge is to gather the whole community to make means to care for the environment.

“Our higher mission today, aside from appreciating what is in our beloved Philippines, is to rally all the stakeholders all around so that we can do our little bit for the survival and enjoyment of Mother earth. We need to start modes of cooperation, both public and private sector, which remains the hope of our national community in the Philippines, in Cebu and in for the Visayas community. This is the Challenge to all of us,” he stressed.