The Iloilo
Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) convened the
first Climate Forum in Iloilo province,
Philippines on 15 November 2006. "The Philippine
Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA) has been holding climate
forums in Manila since 2003 but this is the
first time that a similar forum is being held at
the sub-national level," said Dr. Flaviana
Hilario, Chief of the Climatology and
Agrometeorology Branch at PAGASA.
The Climate Forum
is an important step towards institutionalizing
a dialogue between PAGASA and the forecast
users, such as the PAO and other agencies that
are responsible for managing climate-sensitive
sectors. The Forum helps ensure that the
forecast products provided by PAGASA, including
their inherent uncertainties, are understood by
and communicated to users in a timely manner.
The Forum also provides a venue for forecast
users to give feedback on the relevance of
PAGASA's forecast products in managing
climate-associated risks in various sectors.
If current El Niño condition
persists, PAGASA told the participants that the
province of Iloilo and most of Panay Island will
receive below normal rainfall from November 2006
through March 2007. The El Niño Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, a periodic
warming of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in
the eastern and central equatorial Pacific, has
historically caused rainfall deficit in most
parts of the Philippines, among other impacts.
As seasonal rainfall forecasts are based on
latest SSTs, PAGASA will issue monthly updates
to its six-month seasonal forecast. These
updates may be accessed from PAGASA's website:
http://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph. PAGASA was
represented by Dr. Flaviana Hilario and
meteorologists Anthony Lucero and Rosalinda de
Guzman.
The Climate Forum was participated by the
members of the multi-sectoral Technical Working
Group (TWG) for Climate Forecast Applications
that was constituted by Iloilo Governor Neil
Tupaz on 9th November 2006. The TWG consists of
key agencies at the regional, provincial, and
municipal levels that are responsible for
managing climate-sensitive sectors, such as
agriculture, water resources, disaster
management, environment, and health. After
listening to PAGASA's presentations, the
participants discussed how they would use the
climate information from PAGASA in order to
prepare for the potential impacts of El Niño.
Dr. Romeo Recide, Director of the Bureau of
Agricultural Statistics, and Dumangas Mayor
Rolando Distura served as resource persons
during the discussion. Mr. Zafiro Palabrica,
Provincial Agriculturists and PAO staff Mr.
Lorenzo Locara facilitated the discussion.
The Asian Disaster Preparedness
Center is supporting the Climate Forum in Iloilo
under the "Climate Forecast Applications (CFA)
for Disaster Mitigation in Indonesia and the
Philippines" program. The program helps develop
sustainable end-to-end institutional systems in
Indonesia and the Philippines that demonstrate
improvements in the performance of climate
sensitive sectors at the community level with
the capacity to achieve similar success
nationally in other locations. Dumangas, a
municipality in Iloilo, Philippines is one of
the demonstration sites in the program. CFA is
being funded by the Office of Foreign Disaster
Assistance of the United States Agency for
International Development (OFDA-USAID).
Related ADPC
resources on
El Niño:
-
Asian Regional Meeting on El Niño-Related
Crises
more>>
-
Preparing for El Nino: A climate affairs
challenge [PDF]
-
Regional Climate Outlook:
Southeast Asian Applications [PDF]
