Desktop Study on - Regional Climate Change Adaptation ...

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crops and improved farming practices to reduce
wind speed and evapotranspiration. Apart from
the agricultural sector, the water sector also needs
to adapt the new technical and institutional system
such as improvement of monitoring and forecasting
capability for floods and droughts and introduction
of water pricing policies looking at water as
commodity.
A study of the PCW identifies common as well as
potential adaptation strategies employed in the
agricultural field (Lasco, 2006). Common adaptation
practices include resorting to shallow tube wells to
irrigate their farms, use of water from nearby streams
using pumps to bring water to their cultivated fields
and switching to alternative crops. Meanwhile, one
of potential adaptation strategies suggested was
seeking alternative water sources. The strategy
was promising because of the opportunity of new
water sources for farming even with the shortage
of water from the irrigation system. However, the
weakness in this strategy is that the cost involved
significant reduction in the net revenue from its
produce. In addition, the strategy of switching to
alternative crops, such as vegetables is very effective
since the net income the farmer gets is higher than
the one from rice production. However, there is
a geographical limitation that this is done only in
selected areas due to the type of soil that is suitable
only for rice.
Perez et al. (1999) suggested the adaptation strategy
for coastal areas, especially for future sea level rise in
the context of integrated coastal zone management
(ICZM). It was highlighted that ICZM should entail
‘a process of governance consisting of legal and
institutional framework necessary to ensure
development and management of the coastal zones,
integrated with environment and socioeconomic
goals in a community-participatory process’ (Post
and Landin, 1996 cited in Perez et al., 1999).
Moreover, adaptation strategies entail not only
technical practices but also information sharing
schemes. It is observed that a community that has
been well-informed on the latest techniques in the
farming community and is provided with hybrid rice
seeds, yield more than the ordinary rice varieties,
and is most of the time the best weapon to cope with
the impacts of water shortage and floods (Lasco,
2006).
Gaps Identified in Programs and
Studies
Governance Gaps
The Initial National Communication indicates that,
due to the financial constraint and socio-cultural
behaviours and traditions, it would be hard for the
country to adopt several available water resource
adaptation measures, to enable it to respond to
climate change impacts on water supply and demand.
Due to the fact that different political units
encompass the Manila Bay coastal zones with
different development priority, it is difficult to
make coordinated efforts for ICZM. In addition,
effective implementation of existing laws, rules
and regulations have been undermined because
of institutional weakness or lack of political will
at different level of government, especially at the
local government units to which the mandate of
municipal water management was devolved (Perez
et al., 1999).
The holistic policy intervention to protect water
resources are lacking which includes land use
planning in coastal zones, mangrove management
facilitated by a massive reforestation of degraded
mangrove system. The approach is communitybased,
incorporating wetlands, swamps and marshes
in the National Integrated and Protected Areas, multihazard
mitigation and protection plan for natural
coastal hazards, geological, hydro-meteorological
and structural engineering evaluation as a part of the
environmental impact assessment prior to coastal
development. This limits subsidies or tax incentives
given to land development that would be affected by
sea level rise and promotion of public awareness on
climate change impacts (Perez et al., 1999).
Furthermore, the roles of stakeholders are not
well considered or divided for the ICZM processes.
The involvement of different stakeholders into the
development and implementation of ICZM is key
to assist by enhancing political will to take action
among the policy-makers. Also, allocation of day-today
tasks of ICZM to community groups, including
monitoring of water quality of streams and carrying
out “clean-up” activities on coastal lands can lead to
effective management of the coastal zones (Perez et
al., 1999).
Lasco (2006) pointed out that vulnerability will
arise from the absence of programs to reduce the
vulnerability of the lowland farmers to floods and
water shortages. It was observed that the watershed
is suffering from severe degradation of the forests,
chronic grass fires and extensive cultivation of the
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