First Philippine Parks Congress: Growing healthier, more liveable cities through urban parks

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The Philippine Parks Congress will have its inaugural staging on November 23 to 25, 2022.

Organized by the Department of Tourism (DOT), National Parks Development Committee (NPDC), Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF), Intramuros Administration (IA), Urban Land Institute Philippines (ULI) in partnership with the City of Manila, and City of Baguio. The 1st Philippine Parks Congress aims to gather public and private sector stakeholders involved in developing urban parks and green spaces across the Philippines to lay the foundation for creating a national framework for the development of Philippine urban parks.

"The pandemic highlighted the importance of parks and open spaces and it's apt that we are holding the first Parks Congress at the largest park in Metro Manila - Rizal Park, Luneta," said Cecille Lorenzana Romero, Executive Director of NPDC.

“With the pandemic pushing us to be more appreciative of open spaces, there could be no more perfect time than now to organize the first-ever Philippine Park Congress not just to promote sustainable development for our community, but also to attract tourists and enhance the tourism experience which is included in the 7-point agenda of DOT Secretary Cristina Frasco,” shared by Nayong Pilipino Foundation Executive Director Gertie Duran-Batocabe.

“The Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 highlights that cultural infrastructure and open spaces should be more inclusive to allow for dialogue and cultural exchange. Parks promote art, heritage, culture and other related domain of the Philippine creative industry, and we have seen activities like these help Intramuros recover during the pandemic. The first Philippine Parks Congress will allow us to learn about best practices to make our parks and open spaces more inclusive, “ Edgardo Baysic, OIC of IA noted.

MANILA PARKS STUDY TOUR. The event will kick off on November 23, 2022 with a guided tour around major parks and open spaces in the country’s capital – Paco Park, Rizal Park Luneta, Fort Santiago, ASEAN Garden, Baluarte de San Diego Gardens, Arroceros Forest Park, Mehan Garden, and Kartilya ng Katipunan.

MAIN PLENARY DAY. A series of talks and lectures by key people from both the public and the private sector will take place on the Main Plenary Day at the Rizal Park Open Air Auditorium on November 24, 2022. Keynote Speaker, Jelle Hendrik Therry of Ramboll will open with a lecture on urban parks design from a global perspective and Paulo Alcazaren of PGAA Creative Design will provide a lecture on a history of urban parks in the Philippines. Other speakers will shed light on their respective organizations, agencies and companies by sharing their unique experiences, best practices and technical services in maintaining and operating public parks and open spaces.

Participants will also have a chance to take part in the discussion of the proposed National and Local Public Parks Authority (NALPA) bills currently being reviewed in Congress and in the Senate.

BAGUIO PARKS STUDY TOUR. With its new tourism campaign line, Breathe Baguio, the City of Baguio will share its rehabilitation projects and programs that breathed new life to its famous sites such as the Botanical Gardens, Mines View Park, Burnham Park, and Dominican Hill, a new art and cultural hub.

The inaugural Philippine Parks Congress is also a celebration and a recognition of the 60th Founding Anniversary of the National Parks Development Committee, 50th Founding Anniversary of Nayong Pilipino Foundation Inc., and 10th Founding Anniversary of Urban Land Institute Philippines.

Physical attendance is limited to participants who have been given email invitations.

The general public is invited to participate via Zoom or through Facebook Live. Certificates will be sent to those who have successfully attended via Zoom. Online participants may register here:

https://bit.ly/PPC_zoom

Secretariat: phparkscongress@gmail.com

Official website: bit.ly/1stPPC

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/parkscongressph/

Instagram: @parkscongressph

Xbox Releases First-Ever Transparency Report with Community Safety Practices

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Xbox recognizes the power of play and is committed to making play more fun by creating positive gaming experiences that are safe, inclusive and accessible for all players.

Xbox also knows online safety is a common concern for many Filipinos, many of whom will be spending more time gaming as the holidays approach – after all, we have the world’s longest holiday season!

To help ease some of these concerns, Xbox released its first Digital Transparency Report.

This report covers a range of important actions taken to moderate content, protect Pinoy players on the platform and foster a positive environment where every player from around the world is empowered to control what they see and experience through customizable settings and message filters.

Key takeaways that you may want to share with your audiences include:

Xbox is taking action to offer better experiences. The Xbox team issued more than 4.33M proactive enforcements against inauthentic accounts, representing 57% of the total enforcements in the reporting period. Inauthentic accounts are typically automated or bot-created accounts that can detract from positive player experiences. This proactive moderation, up 9x from the same period last year, allows Xbox to catch negative content and conduct before it reaches players. Xbox continues to invest and improve its tech so players can have safe, positive, and inviting experiences.

Players are stewards of the community. Xbox values all is players, especially its passionate Pinoys! Hence, player reporting is a critical component in Xbox’s safety approach. Alongside increased proactive safety measures, investments in scanning and filtering technologies, and education from the Xbox Ambassador community, reporting helps Xbox improve the work that it does to better protect players. Xbox’s players provided over 33M reports this period, with communications (46%) and conduct (43%) accounting for the majority of player concerns. Content moderation agents are on-staff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to make sure the content and conduct found on the platform adheres to Xbox’s Community Standards.

Players are in control. Every player is different and preferences on content and experiences are not one-size-fits-all. Xbox offers many ways for players to customize settings, from message filters to parental controls, at any point in their Xbox experience. These settings allow players to manage the type of content they see and experience across all the ways they play, whether on PC, console, or anywhere with Xbox Cloud Gaming. It’s up to the players, friends, and family members to take control and implement the settings that are right for them.

Experts Share Strategies to Reduce Global Biodiversity Funding Gap

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Over 70 biodiversity finance experts from Europe and Asia shared various approaches to reduce the global funding gap for biodiversity management at the United Nations Development Programme Biodiversity Finance Initiative’s (UNDP-BIOFIN) Regional Dialogue, held from 8 to 10 November 2022 at the Conrad Hotel in Manila.

“Biodiversity finance finds ways to raise and manage funds to sustainable manage biodiversity. The wealth of our participants’ experiences presents an array of fundraising solutions for the post-COVID world,” explains BIOFIN Global Manager Onno van den Heuvel. Biodiversity investments can stave off extinction. “Every USD1 billion investment reduces the total number of threatened plant and animal species by .57%. However, just .19% of the world’s cumulative GDP is allotted for biodiversity.”

More than halting extinction, biodiversity finance protects the natural systems people rely on. Millions of people across the globe, including 40% of all Filipinos, depend on forests, rivers and oceans for their survival and well-being.

“We are being presented with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save our planet,” shares UNDP Resident Representative Dr. Selva Ramachandran. “We hope our three-day dialogue influences global fora and environmental fundraising programmes over the coming years.”

Sessions tackled results-based budgeting, public-private finance partnerships, nature financial disclosure, insurance and compensation mechanisms, repurposing harmful subsidies, debt instruments, Islamic finance, protected area finance, crowdfunding, lotteries, carbon-based finance instruments, offsets, taskforces on nature-related financial disclosures, coral reef insurance, plus practical COVID-19 recovery strategies. Participants were also able to plant native trees such as banaba and tulibas at the Mount Makiling Forest Reserve in Los Baños, Laguna.

Biodiversity Investments Give 500% Return

In July 2020, Campaign for Nature released a groundbreaking report where over 100 economists and scientists found that investing in the protection of 30% of Earth’s habitats gives a better than 500% return in cumulative benefits.

Globally, this can lead to USD250 billion in increased yearly economic output, plus USD350 billion in improved ecosystem services annually.

For the Philippines, ecosystem services are valued at about PHP2.3 trillion, ranging from timber and fuelwood production to water provision, ecotourism, carbon sequestration, flood prevention and seafood production.

The Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP) aims to leverage and manage various economic incentives, policies and existing capital to sustainably conserve endangered wildlife and their habitats up to 2028. PBSAP requires at least PHP24 billion yearly to cover the costs of park management, personnel, equipment, research, operations, plus other overheads.

However, a baseline study conducted by the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) and BIOFIN found that from 2008 to 2013, just PHP5 billion was allotted for biodiversity initiatives, a mere 0.31% of the national budget. This means Philippine biodiversity projects are only 20% funded, with creative solutions needed to bridge the 80% financing gap.

“Despite the immense economic contribution of fisheries, agriculture and ecotourism to the country’s GDP, less than 1% of the country’s national budget has traditionally been allotted for the protection and conservation of natural systems like forests and coral reefs,” notes BIOFIN Philippines Country Manager Anabelle Plantilla.

 

Financing Biodiversity Conservation in 41 Countries

Launched a decade ago, BIOFIN is a global initiative to help countries develop fundraising solutions to sustainably manage their respective ecosystems at the national level. Since 2012, BIOFIN has developed a 41-nation network covering biodiversity-rich regions across Africa, Europe, South and Central America, plus the Asia Pacific Region.

In Costa Rica, BIOFIN, the National Bank of Costa Rica and the National System of Conservation Areas are working together to enhance protected area entry fees to someday buy privately-owned land inside Costa Rica’s protected areas system. A crowdfunding initiative spearheaded by Costa Rican Vice-president Rica Epsy Campbell Barr successfully raised USD1.7 million.

In Zambia, BIOFIN is working with numerous partners to develop green bonds for investors to directly fund African biodiversity conservation, with a goal of raising USD 400 million in green bond issuances by 2030.

In Bhutan, BIOFIN is working with allies to explore insurance-related finance solutions to financially offset groups affected by human wildlife conflict – a must in a region which harbors endangered tigers and snow leopards.

BIOFIN has been implementing biodiversity finance solutions in the Philippines since 2014. Its largest initiatives include fundraising PHP580 million for 107 Legislated Protected Areas by pushing for increased congressional financing, fundraising PHP17 million for terrestrial reforestation through the Mynt and GCash GForest Programme, fundraising PHP1.6 million for Together for Tamaraws to help communities in Mindoro Occidental affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the Year of the Protected Areas, an ongoing campaign to convince Pinoys to responsibly visit the country’s 247 protected areas.

Among many initiatives, BIOFIN is currently working on a results-based budgeting manual, plus support to post-2020 global biodiversity framework financing targets.

Concludes DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau Director Natividad Bernardino, “Biodiversity investments generate excellent economic and holistic returns. As the planet slowly recovers from the global COVID-19 pandemic, we should re-invest in the protection of the natural systems that give us food, water, clean air and medicine. What we need is simple – to make our planet livable again.” (ENDS)


About the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN)

BIOFIN was launched in 2012 and seeks to address the biodiversity finance challenge in a comprehensive manner – building a sound business case for increased investments in the management of ecosystems and biodiversity, with a particular focus on the needs and transformational opportunities at the national level. For more information: http://www.biodiversityfinance.net



About the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crises, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for all people. On the ground in 177 countries and territories, we offer a global perspective and local insights to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

In the Philippines, UNDP fosters human development for peace and prosperity. Working with central and local governments as well as civil society, and building on global best practices, UNDP strengthens the capacities of women, men and institutions to empower them to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the objectives of the Philippine Development Plan. Through advocacy and development projects, with a special focus on vulnerable groups, UNDP works to ensure a better life for Filipino people. BIOFIN is a UNDP programme. For more information: https://www.ph.undp.org




Captioned Images:


Results-based budgeting. “Every USD1 billion investment reduces the total number of threatened plant and animal species by .57%,” explains BIOFIN Global Manager Onno van den Heuvel at the launch of the 8th BIOFIN Regional Dialogue, held at the Conrad Hotel in Manila, the Philippines. (UNDP-BIOFIN)Conserving wildlife. Thousands of lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) aggregate at an alkaline lake in East Africa. BIOFIN’s fundraising solutions range from sustainable ecotourism to lobbying for increased budgets for national parks. In the past decade, BIOFIN has developed a global network spanning 41 countries, with 26 more slated to join in 2023. (Gregg Yan)


Protecting vital habitats. Together with public and private sector allies, BIOFIN helps protect land and seascapes which harbor endangered and iconic wildlife. Shown is a wild tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis) bull at the Iglit-Baco Mountain Range in Mindoro Occidental. (Gregg Yan)


Planting native trees. Participants also planted native tree species such as tulibas (Micromelum spp.) and banaba (Lagerstroemia speciosa) at the University of the Philippines Los Baños campus in Laguna. (Gregg Yan)






Developing environmental fundraising solutions. BIOFIN Regional Dialogue delegates from Europe and Asia gather at the grounds of the Conrad Hotel in Metro Manila, the Philippines. (Gelo Rockit Chua / UNDP-BIOFIN)