This field visit was organised as part of our learning [DRR/CCA integration in to livelihood program] we were suppose to see the adaptation practical example in costal system eco system.
The team leader was Meng Abarquez and other team members were Hai, dung, maria, joao, kaneka, nansiri, nipatta, mineath, manish [my self] and a climate scientist Madam Lourdes.
We were lucky to have madam Lourdes who has served Philippines climate department [weather station] for more than 35 years as one of the resources.
We were suppose to visit programs of CERD [center for empowerment, research and development] organisation.
On 30th june morning we were all set to drive to manila airport the time given to us as 6:30 am.. we all were at the reception by 6:30 but some how hai and dung took long time so finally we decided to leave and genela promised us to send those two ladies by taxi.
Here we arrived at airport:
[sitting: from left --> Meng, Maria, Mineath::
Standing: from left --> Lourdes, Manish, Hai, Nansiri, joao, Nipatta, Kaneka:::: Pict by Dung]
The flight was around 1:30 hrs to Butuan city a city with airport facilities, we entered light and since we were up till late night and haven’t had enough sleeps we all were dozing off!! We entered aircraft and thinking we could take a small nap!! But unlike other places the aircraft was playing nice English songs but bit louder [it reminded me of Volvo travel from Ahmedabad to Rajkot],…. We could not really concentrate in sleep …..
The place took off…. I really wanted to sleep but time to time promotional announcements [over and above regular Pas] have kept us in attention…
The weather was good, we could land in Butuan on time [9.30 am].. the two wan were waiting for us to take us further 4 hrs drive to Hinatuan… the road to hinatuan was good paved road with the most beautiful greenery around!! I really enjoyed the trip… and yeah the wan driver was really interesting person he wanted to entertain us and hence he played DVD so we could enjoy audio and video both..
We stopped on way to have our lunch.. as usual I struggled to get vegetarian food..
We moved on… finally we reached to hinatuan.. really a small place but the most beautiful one…we were damn tired.. it was around 2:30 pm.. we have had orientation presentation from CERD [Mr. jack] at around 4:30.. I decided to lay down a bit after a good shower….
We were staying in Maryland inn hotel… [and yeah other group was staying in different one!!] it is really the place with bare minimum facilities, the rooms were single bed with a small cabinet and an attached toilet… the room size was 7ft x 12ft… so we can only sit on bed and the moment we get up from bed…. our one leg is already in toilet!! This was just like a cell in jail!! J
After having some good rest we reached to Jam’s café a place chosen by CERD to have presentation.. we run thru CERD presentation
about project and a fantastic presentation by maam Lourdes on climate historic data and futuristic forecast.. … it was really informative and true balance between science and social science!! Bravo maam Lourdes!!
[Madam Lourdes]
The next day we had to meet Mayor of hinatuan, visit to Doppler weather station in the morning and afternoon to travel to mahaba island.. [15 min boat trip from hinatuan]….
In the night group decided to take a small walk around the town.. it was really fun filled walk.. I felt like I became colombus…. As we proceed we kept finding various places in few meter distances.. like just near our place we found a church.. few meter ahead we were excited to see a park full with small community information center in… we kept walking … we found a bank …. We kept wondering whether it is river or sea? The local people guided us and told that this is a small alley dead end with sea.. but if want to see the sea shore.. w eshour go further left…. We decided to explore more….. so we passed by the park.. and suddenly we found the weather station at our right hand side…. We walked further and we found hinatuan bus staion.. few steps ahead a “jeepany station” [the long jeep which carries 30-35 ppl !!! one should not miss jeepany travel while in Manila!!] we walked further and we finally found the sea shore… not really a beach but kind of shore and well build protection wall around….. we moved further… kept following the road parallel to sea shore…. With a big surprise few meter down we found the municipal gym on right and police station on left… just opp to church!! We were enjoying our small expedition..
Nipatta called hinatuan “leco town”…. Some of our group members were tired so they opted to go back… few of us kept walking around…
Finally our energy went donw and we decided to go back to hotel..
Could not sleep well because of small, [non-ventilated] place!! But good enough to last for one more day!!!
1st july…
We were all set to meet up Mr. mayor at 8:30.. we have had breakfast at Jam’s café!! The municipal hall was at walking distance…. We reached there a bit earlier… and found that it was the first day of the “DRR month” celebration …we were so excited to see school children dressed up nicely and performing.. we saw drills.. boy band…. And a fire fighter [I like the name of fire fighter “stoker”] ready to perform the fire drill…
We came to mayor’s office.. he was jam good of a person, learned, diplomatic, articulate and friendly.. we introduced ourselves and chated with him about the project and talked about climate change initiatives taken by him as LGU [local government unit]… it was such an inspiring talk and good to know that LGU have budget allocation from national budget and especially they have 10% calamity fund!! LGU seemed to be well aware and prepared about the disaster risk reduction role.. of course climate change adaptation was not really in to focus but climate related hazards and other weather forecaste was well covered..
I was impressed to know that land use planning was influenced by climate forecast and future disasters.. the municipality have stopped construction purpose land allocation in low laying areas and shifter future construction to the highland!!
[in picture with Mayor of Hinatuan Mr. Candelario J. Viola Jr.]
Our inspiring talk with Mayor came to an end!!
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We moved on to see the Doppler weather station…
Truly scientific weather station where big 18ft diameter radar is set @ 2.7 GHz 3 degree azimuth 40 second / 360 degree coverage speed.. it records multiple weather parameters, including the cloud coverage, humidity, rainfall, temperature, atmospheric pressure and many more… the station was ling=ked with PAGASA [long name for weather department of Philippines..] . the weather data recording was totally automatic .. we climed 8 floors to see the radar and recording …. It was truly eye opener, good learning and fun to see the islands around from 8th floor!!
Here come the lunch time…. We moved back to Jam’s café!! Had our lunch and geared up to visit Mahaba island……
We set in truck.. 
which took us around 30-45 min ride parallel to sea where we ended up in mangroves forest.. further walk way exposed us to wide open sea.. the boat was waiting for us… we set in to boat and travelled 25 min to reach to mahaba island.. which is 215 families living in small place..
We met with women group and saw vegetable garden project.. we were curious to learn how the climate change adaptation took place but unfortunately we could not see anything like that…. it was very disappointing one… it was simply development projects marketed at “climate change adaptation”.. even the projects were poorly designed as for the vegetable garden two important ingredients solil and water were transported from another island.. and one of the major issue was the legality of the land.. we found out that community was living on the land which belongs to private owner….. finally after visiting vegetable garden
[community vegetable garden]
[Mahaba Island Community]
we came back… we stopped over in one of the main land place where we met barangay captain.. very interesting person… we were all tired….. the community was still energetic.. they wanted to show us another vegetable garden.. we visited that.. a bit better planted and maintained garden however very low paid one… women will get 110 peso [about 2.5 $ /person/ harvest] i.e. maximum 6 harvest a year… so not really a substitute or alternative livelihood… but a good effort to explore new options….
Finally we set back in truck and headed to hinatuan and took our dinner..
After our diner.. Nipatta, nansiri and myself had another night walk.. we explored few more places.. we found bank. Commercial centre, kara-oke place in near by walkable distance…. we winded up after having conversations on variety of subject including the organisational gossips!!!
2nd july:
We have to visit cabgan island… which is 45 min travel by boat.. we all set…. Got in to boat and it was fun ride to island…
People in island seemed more organised, lively and welcoming.. we met many people including the barangay captain..
[with Barangai captain -- next to me in green Tshirt]
talked a lot about women@centre project and liked the awareness of community on women rights… we also learned that community is sincerely integrating the gender mainstreaming in the projects..howver we yet to see the climate change adaptation… we were suggested to diver in sea a bit to see the “sea weed” project.. we all set in and took a round of sea weed plantation.. it was really impressive.. we also learned about community based research [data collection on climate]
[Community based research: data collection on salinity]
… we could see that it was autonomous adaptation.. since the weather was changing and the places where they were growing the sea weed traditionally they had to move a bit further to find right environment [quality of water and temperature] for better quality sea weed production..
It was again not really a climate change adaptation good example but atleast we appreciated awareness of community on climate and rediness to adapt..
[seaweed farming - Cabgan Island]
We came back.. we had to rush for lunch…. As we have had debriefing with CERD staff..
We checked out from hotel and headed to CERD new office [6 km off hinatuan]… we have had lunch with staff and then debriefing…. We all reflected on our learnings and provided some good suggestion to CERD.
Finally the time had come for us to say bye bye to hinatuan and lovely CERD staff…. It was full of learning visit……..
We were on our way back to Manila via Butuan…..
.......... continue in Part-II of this tour.....
PS:
- Big thanks to Ms. Dung [from vietnam] for helping us in photo documentation] with out her help this article wouldn't have been so colourful!!
