A record-breaking number of the country’s 500 Environment & Natural Resources converged in Dumaguete for a national convention which tackled issues on mitigation and adaptation components of the Local Climate Change Action Plan, solid waste management, their legal mandates, and on greenhouse gas accounting & inventory and the use of the GHG toolkit.
Environment advocates and mayors from across the country joined the Philippine League of Local Environment & Natural Resources Officers Inc. in the 8th PLLENRO National Convention held from May 17 to 20.
This year’s theme was Cooling the Climate: Keeping Updates and Moving LGUs toward Greener Compliances where the participants went on a technical tour and visited the Dumaguete City’s Waste Water Treatment Facility.
Visayas Field Operations Asst. Sec. Marcial Amaro Jr. from the Department of Environment & Natural Resources, stressed in his keynote speech that local government units must take charge to make communities adaptive to climate change. “DENR must be a committed partner on these endeavors,” he stressed.
Experts from the US Agency for International Development’s Building Low Emission Alternatives to Develop Economic Resilience & Sustainability (B-LEADERS) Project, the Climate Change Commission, the National Solid Waste Management Commission, and DENR’s Environment Management Bureau were the resource speakers in the national convention.
Top local government officials Gov. Roel Degamo, and Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo ensured their unwavering support to the League and its advocacies on environmental preservation and climate change action.
Oliver Gonzales, PLLENRO president, challenged the delegates during the closing program to respond to the call for servant leadership and the cry for help of Mother Earth.
The official website of the Philippine League of Local ENROs www.pllenro.org was also launched during the convention. (Paolo Jeffrey Gan)
