Location & Region: Philippines, Asia Pacific
Partner: Global Mangrove Alliance
Implementer: Conservation International
Area and sector: Coastal / Infrastructure, Nature-based solutions
The Municipality of Concepcion is located in the northern part of Panay Island, the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, formed by more than 25 island villages. This coastal area is exposed to the effects of climate change, from more intense dry seasons to extreme storms and typhoons, affecting the livelihoods of local communities.
In 2013, Hurricane Yolanda hit the islands devastating its population. According to Lorene Gabayeron, a community leader from Bagongon Concepcion “when the typhoon struck our community was not prepared, in an instant we lost our livelihoods, our property was destroyed.”
Our partner Global Mangrove Alliance is working with Conservation International to use nature-based solutions along grey infrastructure to increase the resilience of 11 island villages.
In Bagongon island, the Green Gray Infrastructure initiative has focused on three key objectives:
The project uses a combination of wave attenuation fences, sediment trapping fences, low-crest semi-permeable breakwater as grey solutions, and mangrove restoration and the establishment of a community-based Marine Protected Area (MPA) as green solutions. So far, a total of 110,363 seedlings of native species have been planted covering an area of 11 hectares of mangrove rehabilitation and establishing a 769.7-hectare community-based marine protected area (CB-MPA), which included capacity building and training.
The community has been directly engaged in the restoration and implementation of the project. As part of the effort to incentivize community participation, two livelihood projects were included: the production of coconut-based products and the production of virgin coconut oil (VCO) as liniment and ointment. This supports the community which is heavily reliant on fishing to diversify their income, and increasing resilience during typhoons, monsoons and other extreme weather events that affect fishing.
The project also supported the community in establishing a Barangay Emergency Response Center and emergency response plans.
“We did not have an appropriate system [Emergency Response Plan] like this before, as we were not actively engaged as a community, but we were able to achieve this now through the participation of our members and community (…) Now we believe we are more prepared to face the challenges of Climate change,” Vivian Amasan, Community Leader Bagongon Fisherfolks Association.
The Race to Resilience (R2R) has launched a new tool to help support the campaign’s mission to increase the resilience of four billion people living in vulnerable communities.
A new initiative launched at COP26 is already enhancing the livelihoods of farming families and restoring degraded agricultural land across six countries – Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
All actors and initiatives play their part in shipping’s transition and collectively come together to achieve a common goal to decarbonize shipping in line with the 1.5°C trajectory of the Paris Agreement. Read our joint statement.
New signatories are joining the Race to Resilience daily. Our city and subnational government signatories have more than doubled since COP26, from 30 signatories at COP26 in 2021 after the launch, to over 70 at COP27, with more cities and subnational governments pledging to join the global campaign every day.
