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POST CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES 

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Objectives of the Conference

This Conference aimed at setting the stage for the development of a national policy on wetlands, and a national strategy and action plan for the wise use of wetlands and wetlands resources, incorporating concerns on biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation. 

Specifically, the objectives of the Conference are:

• To  draw the attention of key stakeholders, including local and national policy-makers to the potential impacts of climate change on wetlands conservation, and biodiversity

• To develop guidelines and mechanics for the updating of the National Wetlands Action Plan

• To initiate the updating of the National Wetlands Action Plan taking into consideration the important role that wetlands play in biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation/mitigation.

• To come up with a Conference Resolution on defining the main elements and scope of the National Policy on Wetlands and defining an agreed direction for the way forward among the key stakeholders.

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Conference Proper Design

	Duration:  Three (3) days excluding travel time for those coming from outside of Dumaguete City
	Format: Day 1 :  Paper Presentations/Workshops Day 2 :  Exposure Trip / Field Observation and             Community Interaction Day 3 :  Workshops/Plenary Discussions /             Conference Resolutions
	Presentations/Papers were posted on the conference site.

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Preparatory Activities

Formation of Technical Working Groups (TWG) to review policies, plans and programs related to wetlands conservations.

	Freshwater Wetlands	Ms. Adelina Santos-Borja
	Marine/Coastal Wetlands	Mr. Florendo Barangan
	Wetlands Policy	Atty. Ma. Paz Luna
	Enabling Activities	Ms. Amy Lecciones

Each Technical Working Group have small group meetings/workshops to consolidate and review information out from various documents and to prepare the working document for the conference.  The sources of information include (but were not limited to) the following:

	The National Wetlands Action Plan for the Republic of the Philippines
	Protection and Sustainable Use of Wetland Resources in the Philippines
	National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use and Protection of Philippine Peatlands
	National Report on Wetlands (UNEP/GEF Project:  Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand)
	Proceedings of the First National Lake Congress on Philippine Lakes
	National Ecotourism Strategy
	Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Priorities
	Key Biodiversity Areas
	National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP)

The review was guided by the questions such as -

	What is the state of the particular group of wetlands?
	Are all the current (and future) issues and concerns the confronting wetlands identified in the said documents? If not, which ones were not included?
	Are they adequately addressed by the strategies/action plans/activities in the national, regional and local plans?
	If not, identify strategies and activities that will adequately address them.
	To the extent possible, identify tasking (as to agency/organization who will implement the strategy/activity; timetable; outputs; targets and indicators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The outputs of the small group meetings of the TWGs were presented at the National Conference for validation.