【Philippines】“Continuous forest conservation activity leads to development of disaster-resistant villages”

November 2013, super typhoon Haiyan hit Bisaya area, Philippines and claimed so many lives and caused great damage to farm land, forest and fishing grounds. Schools which used to join CFP in Leyte Island, Negros Island and Panay Island and the forest that children have been taking care of were also damaged. On the other hand, we could hear that local people telling “Damages to the villages by the rain storm and tidal waves were mitigated because of the forest”, “The fully grown trees helped us to build  temporary school buildings which replaced the  completely destroyed ones”.

In recent years, we have an increasing number of reports that schools and villages had been damaged by the natural disaster resulted from abnormal weather. Local forest planting activities lead to not only preventing flood and landslide but also mitigating disasters' damages and promoting regional recovery. It is needed to promote this activity in order to make children recognize the role of nature and take the initiative in planting and preservation activity. Moreover, we need to promote the activity for the development of the disaster-resistant villages.