Mayette October 30th, 2008
27 October 2008
PHILIPPINES: ‘Women Take the Brunt of Climate Change‘
By Prime Sarmiento
MANILA, Oct 24 (IPS)
Filipina farmer Trinidad Domingo views the coming
rice harvest season with trepidation. A typhoon destroyed much of her crop
and Domingo estimates that her two-hectare plot will produce less than the
usual 200 sacks of rice. Typhoons are a part of life for most Filipino farmers but they know how to
minimise losses brought on by heavy rains. Domingo starts tilling rice as
early as June and July — the start of the wet season. By planting early,
she can avoid most rain damage.But this year, Domingo could only start planting in August as the wet
season started late.“This is really a problem for me as I invested a lot of money, about PhP
60,000 (roughly 1,250 US dollars), for this cropping season. I may not be
able to repay my loan and my family may really need to tighten belts,’’ she
said. Domingo heads an extended family that includes siblings and numerous
nephews.
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Mayette October 29th, 2008
Marita P. Rodriguez
Program Development Officer
Center for Empowerment and Resource Development, Inc. (CERD)
Paper presented to the Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance, Oct. 19-22, 2008 at Dusit Thani Hotel, Manila, Philippines
I. The Women in Fisheries and Who Live in the Coastal Communities
The Philippines, composed of 7,100 islands and islets, is an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia. Its boundaries are formed by three large bodies of water: on the west and north by the South China Sea; on the east by the Pacific Ocean; and on the south by the Celebes Sea and coastal waters of Borneo. The total land area of the Philippines is 300 thousand square kilometers or 30 million hectares. It constitutes two percent of the total land area of the world and ranks 57th among the 146 countries of the world in terms of physical size. Being archipelagic country fishing is an important source of livelihood for people in the coastal areas.
Studies by the Center for Empowerment and Resource Development, Inc. (CERD), a non-government organization implementing community-based coastal resource management, shows that 50-90% of fishing activities are done by women. In addition, women also earn income by utilizing the coastal resources. Mangrove areas, by their nature (nearshore) are usually where women go to gather fish, shellfishes, and other marine resources (such as fry). Mangroves were also used as firewood. Particularly in 1 island 76 women out of 86 households are involved in shell gathering.
Other zones in the coastal areas that women use for their subsistence (food, income, health) are seagrass beds, reef flat areas, and beach areas.
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Mayette October 3rd, 2008
Last week (September 22-26) 5 people from CERD, me included, attended a short course on DRR sponsored by Christian Aid, one of our donor partners. Perhaps the very basic but most important learning we got from this course are the definitions of disaster, risk, hazard, vulnerabilities and capacities:
Disaster: what occurs when the impact of a hazard on a section society (causing death, injury, loss of property or economic lossess) overwhelms that society’s ability to cope. There are requirements for an event to be considered disaster. According to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, at least one of the following should be present: 10 or more people killed, 100 reported affeced, there is a call for international assistance and/or a declaration of a state of emergency.
Hazard: a potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon, and/or human activity which may cause loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption and environmental degradation. It can be natural, human-induced or environmental.
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