This is a sneak peek at a paper this columnist will present during the Fifth National Convention of Private Sector Representatives in the Regional Development Councils on April 23-25, 2024, in Zamboanga City. This event will be on the theme – To GIVE: Greening the Economy, Inspiring Innovation, Vitalizing Vibrant Spaces, and Ensuring Transformative Development Through Private Sector-Government Collaboration.
The importance placed on greening policies is bolstered by an April 13, 2024, press release from the Presidential Communications Office which said that the Philippine government and the European Commission affirmed their agreement to sustain the country’s transition to a green economy through environment protection and climate change mitigation and provide a grant worth 60 million euros to finance the efforts of the Philippine government to strengthen its green initiatives.
Points To Assess
This paper considers several trends that point to the need to assess how the government’s Greening Program is affecting the country on a region-to-region basis. These trends should be considered in the implementation of the grant stated above,
First, the Philippine Development Plan does not have an explicit and clear-cut regional development strategy. An inter-regional analysis in the national Plan would have shown the need for and progress in greening the country in each region and recommended a clear policy direction for specific regions as part of a national development strategy. It is not too late to rectify and do something about this oversight.
Second, the Philippines has a highly uneven regional socio-economic landscape as shown by divergent average family incomes and poverty incidence. It is important to consider that the average family income in the developed regions (largely industrial) is more than double that of the depressed regions (largely green and agricultural). This should set off alarm bells. Something is wrong here.
Third, concerning the above, the bottom-ranked regions from Cagayan Valley and Bicol in the island of Luzon, to the Eastern Visayas region in the Visayas, to CARAGA, ARMM, and Zamboanga Peninsula in Mindanao have significant agricultural production which accounts for about a third of their Gross Regional Domestic Product (a measure of economic production).
Fourth, on the other hand, NCR, CALABARZON, and Central Luzon in Luzon Island, Central and Western Visayas in the Visayas, and Northern and Southern Mindanao are predominantly industrial regions or at least have strong industrial bases.
Improvement Not Felt
Tragically, the regions that are devoting a considerable percentage of their human and natural resources to agriculture are the ones lagging behind the industrially prosperous regions. This means that the problem in the lagging and agricultural regions is not much about greening but about providing income-earning opportunities.
There is an empirical basis for this view. A study conducted in the Province of Biliran compared the socioeconomic status of members of the Community-based Forestry Project Beneficiaries Association (CFPBA) in Caibiran, Biliran Province who implemented the National Greening Program with community members who were not involved in the program.
In this study, CFPBA-member respondents’ testimonies indicated that they did not feel the improvement. They unanimously suggested the presence of a sustainable livelihood component, participation in planning, and strong extension service to strengthen National Greening Program implementation.
In urban areas, the deterioration of the environmental condition is caused by pollution from factories, motor vehicles, commercial establishments, and households.
A Vicious Cycle
However, It is worth noting that while both areas have environmental problems, the economic situation in the industrialized regions is better than that of the rural regions as shown by their poverty incidence. For example, the poverty incidence in NCR is only 2 percent, but it is on average a high 20 percent in Eastern Visayas. Bicol, and the Zamboanga Peninsula.
This implies that the pollution of NCR does not increase poverty incidence most probably because the industries that pollute the air produce employment that increases household income.
This could be the greatest irony of development in the Philippines. It is a vicious cycle. And that is what is wrong in greening the Philippines. That cycle must be altered.
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