Philippine Strategy on Climate Change Adaptation, 2009

The formulation of the Philippine Strategy on Climate Change Adaptation builds on existing institutional processes but emphasizes collaboration among national agencies, the legislative branch, the academe, business and civil society. 

Eight technical working groups were organized to tackle needs and concerns in eight major sectors, namely:

1. Agriculture
2. Biodiversity
3. Coastal and Marine
4. Forestry
5. Water
6. Health
7. Energy
8. Infrastructure

Local government units are especially prominent since their front-line roles and accountabilities in dealing with climate change are well recognized. The document  presents the sector profile, identifies the issues and gaps for each, as well as the sector's Technical Working Group and the direction of the strategies being developed. 

For agriculture, strategies will be developed along four key areas: 

• Capacity building for resilience in agriculture systems
• Research and development
• Awareness and communication
• Linking with mitigation strategies

For biodiversity, the strategies would include developing vulnerability and risk assessment models on climate change impacts on biodiversity, assessing vulnerability of species and ecosystems. 

For the coastal and marine sector, the adaptation strategies being developed will identify management actions to improve the resilience of biological and ecological systems of the sector against the impacts of climate change. 

For the energy sector, the focus will be on the development of renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. 

The forestry sector is working on strategic adaptation to assist local communities in/or adjacent to forests to form organizations to sustainably manage the forest ecosystem. 

For the health sector, it is expected to build both social and physical health infrastructure that are climate-proof and would reduce the health vulnerabilities to climate change. 

The infrastructure sector, which cuts across areas of concern, will look at parallel strategies addressing the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, water, health, agriculture and energy, among others. 

In the water sector, the technical working group is developing strategies to build adaptive capacity on integrated water resources management for climate change adaptation at the national and local levels.