Bridging natural resource management and the Church in Mindanao

Bishop Pacana: delivering a message during the Policy Orientation Seminar among church workers in the Diocese of Malaybalay.

The project initially audited the Church's existing projects at the local level to gain an overview of the current position. This involved visiting and holding discussions with over eighty parishes to gather the necessary data to form a comprehensive set of data on the parish activities.

The second stage of the project used the gathered data as a basis for establishing a diocese wide environental agenda. The objectives gathered at the deanery level were worked into 10 cross cutting themes for the diocese as a whole.

Fr. Lito Clase: The Director of Social Services of the Dicoese of Butuan gives an orientation in Barangay Puting Bato as part of the effort of the church to work in multi-stakeholder context.

Having the verified field data has enabled the church to increase its success rate in getting resource management based proposals adopted. Another benefit of the project has been to enable the church officers to sit down with local government officials to pool their combined knowledge. This joint approach is being piloted on two projects in the fields of water and forestry.

The project is likely to be extended for another three years with the aim to improve the active participation of the Church in environmental monitoring activities at the province level.