Awareness up in the Philippines

Rolly T. Carandang in the Manila Bulletin (Philippines): Senator Loren Legarda, the Asia-Pacific Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, lauded Sunday the growing awareness of citizens and various groups in Eastern Visayas on the issue of climate change.

Legarda, who has produced documentaries to inform the public about climate change, said that the increasing consciousness on the phenomenon would lead to the effective adaptation to its effects.

…Meanwhile, the senator also took notice of the government’s ongoing geo-hazard mapping, which according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Region VIII is almost complete in the Eastern Visayas Region. Geo-hazard mapping is the identification of areas of the country where natural hazards and disasters—such as rain-induced landslides, floods, storm surge, coastal erosion, and sea-level rise, among others—are most likely to occur.

…“This is very useful for our disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation initiatives because we could now effectively shield our communities from the destructive effects of geologic hazards since we would be able to make the necessary preparations and build the proper defenses in the appropriate disaster-prone areas….” Legarda said....

The Loboc River in the Visayas region of the Philippines, shot by Kleomarlo, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported