Attaining SDG targets: BD Corridor Project Aims to Sustainably Manage PH Forests and Lands
The DENR-UNDP/GEF Biodiversity Corridor Project will help the Philippines attain the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations particularly in sustainably managing forests and reversing land degradation.
This was revealed by Assistant Director Amy Ortiz of the DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau during the recent inception workshop of the BD Corridor Project, which will benefit ecosystems and people primarily in the Central Mindoro (R4B) and Eastern Mindanao (R13/R11) biodiversity corridors.
“For the eventual results framework of the Project, all these contribute to our shared targets of sustainably managing forests, combating desertification, halting and reversing land degradation, and eventually halting biodiversity loss,” Asst. Dir. Ortiz said in her closing remarks.
Life on Land
The project will also help ensure that beneficiaries especially the poor and the vulnerable will have equal access and rights to economic resources and equal access to the delivery of basic services, doubly attaining UN goals of targetting poverty and life on land, and attaining a resilient, equitable and sustainable path to develop communities especially in select BD Corridor clusters.
“We shall integrate not just ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning processes, but also poverty reduction initiatives including sustainable microfinance and biodiversity-friendly enterprises,” Asst. Dir. Ortiz added.
She said the Project will implement nature-based solutions to address biodiversity conservation, sustainable use and equitable benefit sharing of natural resources, in line with national legislation and international conventions.
In forming the BD Corridor alliances for Mindoro and Eastern Mindanao, the pioneering network design of the Project will help sustainably manage these biodiversity corridors for years to come.
Further, she said the Project can deliver a groundswell of support for more effective area-based conservation measures like this integrated ecosystem management (IEM) approach. The Project will link with local partners in sustainable forest and land management, indigenous and local community conservation, and BD-friendly enterprise and nature-based solutions. (Mitch R. Confesor)