BUTUAN CITY-  Pro-environment group Partido Kalikasan today offered assistance to all newly elected Barangay and SK officials all over the country for training and development on green governance in their respective barangays.

            Roy Cabonegro, Secretary General of Partido Kalikasan in a press statement furnished to BATAS MEDIA said Partido Kalikasan is offering to winning candidates help in declaring their own program of governance as well as individual citizens and citizens’ groups commitment to monitor and support the implementation of green governance

            Cabonegro said Partido Kalikasan will help newly-elected SK and Barangay officials in the country the following specific green agenda; one, Ecological solid waste management, two, Food Security through organic agriculture and support to agrarian reform communities,  three, Non-Motorized public transport systems & full implementation of the clean air act, four, Maintenance and development of community forest and greenbelts through rainforestations and community-based forest management approaches and five, Development of marine and terrestrial protected areas, watersheds and riverbasins management.

            Partido Kalikasan said they will also help said village and SK officials attained knowledge in the; Protection and promotion of the rights of Indigenous People to their ancestral domain claims; Community-based climate change adaptation and disaster risk management programs; Support to MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium) enterprises to promote green jobs/businesses; Setting up of off-grid renewable energy systems for electricity and irrigation and Facilitation with capacity development to ensure active community participation in all development projects decision-making (particularly on mining, biotech & toxic enterprises).

            Cabonegro further stated, his group will also help said local officials in Developing community capacity to effectively maximize the green courts and Mobilizing and developing capacity of young people in sustainable development work.

            The group said people in the villages are really the basic units of governance by which Partido Kalikasan took its inspirations and strength despite some animosities in the deeply entrenched interests of patronage politics and corruption

            A challenge, Partido Kalikasan is willing to take or rather just fence-sitting waiting for environmental disasters to take place without trying its best to protect environment and make disaster risk management plan to save human lives which is actually the main purpose why Partido was created.

            But Cabnegro on the other hand said Partido Kalikasan is optimistic that there are still well meaning men and women among communities who silently shared vision, commitment and willingness to cooperate to further expand green governance in many of our communities.

            The press statement said there are numerous best practices among communities in the country  and youth-level initiatives in green governance by citizens and politicians alike that needs to be further institutionalize in the barangay and SK-level governance

            “The reasons why we need to shift to this sustainable development path is obvious enough in the continuing destruction of our ecological base and the growing poverty and inequality between the rich and the poor”, Cabonegro added.

            The statement further adds that with the country being the 4th most vulnerable to climate change impacts, and a mega-biodiverse country with very low capacity to manage these resources sustainably; our stake is high.

            Many in the green movement have called on voters to select the candidates that are environment-friendly and will carry the green agenda. Our call is the same, it said.

            “However, we would like to extend this call to offer support to those who will be elected in the form of trainings and mentorship on green governance; starting with sharing best practices” Cabonegro further adds.

            Election is an important exercise, but it is in the actual governance in between elections where the real challenge is, the press statement concludes. (-30-)