Climate Change Report with Green Papaya Art Projects

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE REDD+ REPORT

THE PHILIPPINE FORESTS: BEFORE AND WHAT NOW? A MULTI-MEDIA EXHIBITION PRESENTED BY

DEUTSCHE GESELLSCHAFT FÜR INTERNATIONALE ZUSAMMENARBEIT (GIZ) GMBH

AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Curated by NORBERTO ROLDAN / Design by TOUKI ROLDAN / Video by RED LASAM / Original Score by RIA MUÑOZ

October 14-16, 2011, La Plaza Tiendesitas, Pasig City

Green Papaya Art Projects is privileged to have been commissioned by the German Development Cooperation GIZ in partnership with the DENR-Climate Change Office to curate and design a multi-media exhibition as part of an information campaign on climate change.

74 years ago 60 percent or about 18 million hectares of the land in the Philippines was covered by forests. By 2003, forest cover dwindled to 7 million hectares. It has been found that forest loss annually is 157,000 ha or roughly the size of 3.5 million basketball courts! About 17% of global emissions are due to loss of tropical forests. Destroyed forests mean more carbon dioxide in the air. The Philippines now regularly suffers from landslides, flooding and drought, increasing temperature and intensity of rainfall due to climate change.

Forests regulate the planet’s climate by absorbing the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Our planet processes greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide to make it liveable. Without this process our planet will be too cold. But an overload would make our planet too warm.

REDD+ is a new and more effective approach to conservation by avoiding further deterioration of forests and emissions of greenhouse gases while generating benefits. REDD stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.

Forests are renewable assets. Community-based Forest Management is a key in addressing deforestation and forest degradation. If local communities are given access to and control of forest resources and allowed to benefit from them, they will be responsible stewards and hence effective partners in the promotion of sustainable forest management.