Bioregional planning
PLANNING offices are regular features of provinces, cities and municipalities in the Philippines. These offices are mandated to chart the growth of their respective local governments and at the same time provide contingencies during crisis. But there are development issues that straddle across boundaries, giving birth to regional planning to effectively address concerns that are not exclusive to one local government. Regional planning has thus become a venue for sharing ideas, resources and actions so common problems can be attended to collectively.
However, recent environmental phenomena caused by climate change – like the flood that hit Iloilo City and neighboring municipalities – showed that regional planning may not just be enough to manage growth. In this era where the environment directs what development path communities should take, there is a need to look beyond political regions and start acknowledging that we don’t just live in cities, municipalities and provinces but also in watersheds, ecosystems and ecoregions.
The Tigum-Aganan watershed, for example, is not just an area found in the mountains but extends down to the hills of Maasin, Alimodian and Leon, the plains of Cabatuan, Janiuay, Santa Barbara, San Miguel and Pavia and exits along the shores of Iloilo City and Oton. A watershed, per se, is not just a forested area but a continuum of three environments – the mountains, the lowlands and the coast. All these three make up what scientists call a bioregion, thus giving birth to a concept known as bioregionalism.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describes a bioregion as a land and water territory, the limits of which are not defined by political but the geographical boundaries of human communities and ecological systems.
Planning, therefore, should no longer be confined to a local government or a cluster of local governments, but should shift towards looking at a bioregion. In other words, planning should now be closely related to nature. Advocates of bioregionalism says that planning should take an all-embracing approach where the sustainable development challenge is addressed in an integrated and holistic, and not one where issues are dealt with separately – like environmental issues are dealt with by environmentalists, economic issues by economists and social issues by social scientists.
By Nereo Lujan
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Another big challenge now is who should take the lead in bioregion planning and management. Component LGUs have now shown interest in taking part in the necessary efforts but still needs more specific guidance on how to take active part and support. The RDC can be a good convenor for the bioregion approach to planning but its current weak set-up in terms of a logistically-equipped and well-trained technical work group has to also be addressed first.
What a question coming from you, sir butch, the last time i look the leadership task is with the local chief executives (city and province) and their planning alter-ego who are the planning and development coordinators