Foundation for the Philippine Environment conducts Strategic Planning for Lake Mainit

Butuan City – The Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE) successfully conducted a three-day Strategic Planning Workshop Part 1 on August 20-22, 2008 at San Lorenzo Ruiz Pastoral Formation Center, Ampayon, Butuan City. It was actively participated with partners’ local government units in four lakeshore municipalities; eight assisted people’s organizations; Indigenous People; Geographic Rediscovery of Endangered Environment and Natural Resources in Mindanao (GREEN Mindanao) Association, Inc., Caraga Consortium for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, Inc., and Lake Mainit Development Alliance (LMDA).

Resource Persons from the Mindanao State University facilitated the said activity. Mr. Armando C. Pacudan, the Regional Operations Manager Mindanao Regional Unit explained the main purpose of the activity which is to formulate strategic development plans for Lake Mainit Community-Based Biodiversity Conservation project intervention as main workshop output of the activity.

The activity was highlighted with the workshops on assessing the Lake Mainit Community-Based Biodiversity Conservation project strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities; crafting vision and mission for Lake Mainit; and presentation of the 5-year indicative development plans which focus on organizational strengthening, environmental policy formulation and implementation, tribal empowerment, natural resources management (NRM), alternative livelihood, linkages/networking, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign, access to basic services/resources, and research and development.

The next step is to present the workshop output to the eight assisted community areas for validation and further enhancement for the Part 2 strategic planning. The following are the agreed dates of workshop presentation and validation to eight pilot communities in Lake Mainit:

August 28, 2008 a.m	Cantugas, Mainit, Surigao del Norte
August 31, 2008 a.m	Tagbuyawan, Mainit, Surigao del Norte
August 31, 2008 p.m	Tapian, Mainit, Surigao del Norte
August 29, 2008 a.m	San Juan, Alegria, Surigao del Norte and San Roque, Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte
August 29, 2008 p.m	Bangayan, Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte
August 30, 2008 a.m	Bunga, Jabonga, Agusan del Norte
August 30, 2008 p.m	Poblacion, Jabonga, Agusan del Norte

Result of the validation will be presented and discussed on the Part 2 of strategic planning workshop which will be conducted on September 8-9, 2008.

Hopefully, the final strategic plan will be included in the continues project intervention of FPE in Lake Mainit biodiversity conservation, Mr. Pacudan said.
© By Johny S. Natad
Photos by Caraga Consortium for Environmental Protection & Sustainable Development, Inc.