Understanding Land Use Change For A Sustainable Future

The goal of our collaboration proposal is

to share the major findings of land cover assessment initiatives in Bukidnon, Philippines, and launch an online data portal for stakeholders to help in esource management, planning initiatives and further research

Description of our collaboration proposal

The Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) launched an online portal of the updated Bukidnon land cover data on 10 August and organizing a webinar on Understanding Land Use Change for a Sustainable Future: An ESSC Webinar on the Bukidnon Land Cover Updates of 2005-2018. Supported by the Forest Foundation Philippines and the Académie de Recherche Et d’Enseignement Supérieur (ARES or Academy of Research and Higher Education) of the Belgian Government, the webinar will highlight ESSC’s major outputs and findings based on its collaborative land cover mapping initiatives with the Provincial Government of Bukidnon in 2005, and a 2018 land cover update. Pierre Defourny, Professor of Geomatics, Earth Remote Sensing, and Land Use Planning at the Université Catholique de Louvain will give the keynote remarks, while Pedro Walpole SJ, ESSC Research Director, and Rowena Soriaga, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) Adviser served as panelists.

Andres Ignacio, ESSC Director for Planning and Geomatics Manager, moderated the discussion. With the online data portal, stakeholders can access the updated high-quality maps and GIS data of the Bukidnon land cover assessment for resource management, planning initiatives and further research. This initiative is part of the Assessment of Land and Resource Management and Generating Advancement for Upland Peoples (ALARM-GAUP) project which aims to contribute to enhancing forest ecosystem services in the Northern Pantaron Mountain Range in Eastern Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental, one of the last remaining primary forest blocks in Mindanao, through a comprehensive analysis of forest cover change drivers in the mountain range. The five-year project seeks to improve the knowledge of stakeholders on the value of ecosystem services provided by the Northern Pantaron Range, and to build the capacities of upland communities in natural resource management to safeguard remaining forests in their gaupor ancestral domain.