Sarangani is pilot area for climate adaptation program

GENERAL SANTOS CITY--The Climate Change Commission (CCC) has chosen Sarangani Province as among the pilot areas in Mindanao for a climate adaptation program for tribal communities.

Sarangani Gov. Steve Chiongbian Solon said Friday the province qualified as an expansion area of the program based on an assessment conducted by the agency.

Dubbed Comprehensive Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program for the Indigenous Peoples (CICARP), Solon said it will mainly complement with the continuing implementation of the local government’s flagship Sulong Kalikasan program.

Sulong Kalikasan is a component of the Sulong Sarangani program, a comprehensive development initiative designed to address the province’s socio-economic challenges.

Jannette Serrano-Reisland, senior technical adviser of CCC Secretary Emmanuel De Guzman, said in a statement released on Friday by the provincial government that the province has passed the criteria for the rollout of CICARP starting this year.

She said Sarangani was among the 22 provinces in the country that have been enlisted into the program.

The other pilot areas in Mindanao are Davao City and Bukidnon province.

Reisland said the program’s implementation will focus on seven thematic concerns based on the National Climate Change Action Plan and the International Disaster Risk Reduction Framework.

These are food security, water sufficiency, environmental and ecological stability, human security, climate-friendly industries and services, sustainable energy and knowledge capacity development.

She said the program will mainly help lumad or indigenous peoples’ (IP) communities cope with the impact of climate change.

The IPs, especially those situated in upland communities, are considered as among the “most vulnerable” sectors the worsening climatic changes, she said.     

Under the program, she said the IP beneficiaries will be trained on various strategies that would help them properly adapt to changing climate and temperatures, especially on the impact to their livelihood and daily activities.

“Our goal is to energize households in the remote and upland communities through sustainable renewable energy sources like solar and hydro power,” she said.

She said health teams will be dispatched to help the IPs combat “climate change-borne diseases.”

The beneficiaries will be trained on upland rice indigenous organic farming and proper handling of spring water resources as part of the food security and water sufficiency components, she said. (PNA)