ESSC is a Jesuit research institute that promotes environmental sustainability and social justice through the integration of scientific methodologies and social processes.

Building scientific capacity requires group commitment and integrity to see changes made and discern with a deeper human spirit our life in the world.
Vision

We envision a trusting and empowering society working for sustainable resource management, ecological services and human security.

We will be a globally recognized research institute and a dynamic partner in pursuit of environmental integrity and social justice.
Mission

To contribute to a critical and holistic understanding of the dynamic relationship between biophysical and social processes in collaboration with partners for the appropriate management of the environment for human development.

We seek to respond to

• Indigenous tenure of lands
• Impact of human security needs
• Biodiversity loss
• Human migrations and dislocation
• Management of human distress
• The impact of climate change

Sustainability

The global importance of forests and fear of any further widespread conversion impacting on climate and biodiversity is acknowledged internationally and cannot be ignored or afforded by the Philippines.
Sustainability carries multiple and varied assumptions and people feel that any further change is loss as the stability of the natural system implicitly defines sustainability. Yet contradictions occur in society. Large scale exploitation of resources is for many economically evident and a must, while indigenous people practicing swidden is unacceptable. For others, the reverse is arguable. Sustainability is the balancing of change so that resources can be accessed while ecological services sustained and must include social and cultural equity.

Sustainability is increasingly going beyond political and lowland definitions as the ultimate dependence on water and the importance of the upper watershed is resulting in a growing recognition of indigenous peoples' needs cultural-economic needs. These communities cannot survive by providing ecological services as there are no returns. At the same time they are increasingly in contact with the marginal and highly exploitative end of market forces and pick up the most destructive practices.

Sustainability goes beyond scientific definition as it enters the realm of the social context and survival of many indigenous cultures and migrants from the agricultural lowlands. Sustainability is not just containing forest conversion by small scale community expansion, traditional or migrant. The drivers of change need to be dealt with and their impact on these communities so as to manage and thereby develop closed access to forestlands with supportive markets and compensation returned to the uplands for sustaining ecological services.

Land and water use

ESSC works for a positive understanding of economic growth and local development that protects and nurtures the environment.

Deepening the understanding of natural resource management in the context of shifting environmental policies, require us to draw from a broad range of experiences with groups that implement programs and communities that work with the realities of development efforts. ESSC's development of scientific information helps unpack complex and overlapping stakeholdership that has developed over time on land and water resources in critical areas.

One such effort was the documentation and development of information on the causes of destructive floods that occurred in Real and Infanta, Quezon in the Philippines. The great damage wrought by flooding in Quezon in the past 2 decades has brought to the fore the question as to what were the actual causes of the disasters. The long-term effects of these events continue to be felt by the families in the hard-hit areas. Long-term solutions are needed, not only to rehabilitate these communities, but also to reduce - if not prevent - the destruction of life and property in similarly vulnerable areas in the future.

On-going research and data analysis show that a loss of one to three percent forest cover in the Sierra Madre Range over the last 11 years is not an adequate justification for focusing on illegal logging but more reason to focus on poverty reduction, relocation of high risk communities and ensure the accountability of local government. The reversal of this will not necessarily prevent future disasters of similar nature as floods and landslides are part of the natural processes of reshping the landscape over time. People must be relocated to low risk areas. ESSC's research is beginning to tackle 50 to 100 year rainfall events. The area of risk, today, is increasingly determinable.

As new data pours in, policy-makers are provided with a sounder basis for drawing up responsive solutions to different problems, and a better orientation to the long term needs of major relocation of communities to other lands, especially in Infanta and the eastern seaboard. The analysis is further integrated with a wide range of information that would contribute to a more manageable understanding of the causes of disasters

Management of Conflict Integration

Through dialogues for management and collaborative research, ESSC assists in the search for mechanisms leading to growth and development that are sustained by a socially accountable use of resources.

• Greater community benefits from natural resources as a result of effective management systems
• Adequate tenurial delineation for planning of sustainable investment
• Responsive government planning and decision making for the use and protection of the environment
• Strategic donor agency support for communities and government programs for land use planning and management
• Greater environmental accountability from government
• Strengthened local and national policies for ecological services and stability
• Greater responsiveness of investment efforts in natural resources to local potential and needs
• Clarity in establishing the process of resolving stakeholder differences and more responsive policy