The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is working on a national policy on nature-based solutions (NbS) to ensure that forest restoration, watershed protection and other ecosystem-based approaches become core strategies for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the Philippines.
At a multi-stakeholder forum dubbed “Punla” (Seedling) in Quezon City on Tuesday, DENR Assistant Secretary for Policy, Planning, International Affairs and Climate Change Noralyn Uy said the policy, which is being developed with support from United States Agency for International Development, United Nations Development Programme and other partner organizations, will set Philippine-specific standards, monitoring systems, and incentives for both government and private sector adoption.
“We want NbS to move from project-based initiatives into institutionalized, long-term governance practice,” Uy said.
The move follows increasing recognition that traditional infrastructure alone cannot protect communities from intensifying floods, droughts and typhoons.
DENR Forest Management Bureau Assistant Director Ray Thomas Kabigting stressed that ecosystem restoration must be treated as an investment, not an optional activity.
He said that NbS is a more comprehensive, strategic and synergized approach using nature as the main solution.
“The Philippines faces the harsh realities of a changing climate, with intense typhoons, prolonged droughts and a rising sea level threatening our community. Yet, we are discovering that our greatest strength lies not in fighting nature, but collaborating with it,” Kabigting said.
He said the country’s biodiverse ecosystem offers powerful pathways to resilience that engineered infrastructure alone cannot match, especially during nature-based calamities and events.
He said that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. himself, during the inauguration of an irrigation system in the Visayas on Sept. 5, said that the project is sustainable because there is good forest cover in the headwaters.
“There are other solutions to these climate events and climate impacts other than infrastructure, and I think those are where nature-based solutions can be seriously talked about by policymakers, governance people, and also non-government organizations, civil society,”Marcos said.
“Because we’re only looking at one set of solutions that clearly does not work even if the best dikes are built there, even if the best check tanks are built there, even if the best floodgates are built there, if your headwaters continue to not provide the ecosystem service that it’s supposed to provide, it will never work. There will just be more floodwaters.”
Kabigting acknowledges the work being done by the DENR Climate Change Service that convened the multi-stakeholder technical working group, composed of dedicated practitioners, policymakers and academics on nature-based solutions.
The group is driving the institutionalization of NbS in the country and in mobilizing the support needed for this very cause.
Forest Foundation Philippines chairperson Edwina Garchitorena underscored the role of partnerships in ensuring high-integrity NbS, particularly by empowering women and indigenous groups.
“These are not abstract concepts. Communities are already leading real actions that sustain livelihoods and strengthen resilience,” she said.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Head of Cooperation to the Philippines, Simon Snoxell, affirmed Ottawa’s support, noting that NbS “can solve many problems at the same time, from improving water quality, storing carbon, restoring biodiversity and uplifting marginalized groups.”
Uy noted that NbS is already integrated into key national frameworks such as the Philippine Development Plan, National Adaptation Plan and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan. (PNA)
