Report to the FPE General Assembly by the Immediate Past FPE Chair & CEO

October 10, 2014Quezon City

(Slide 1: Cover Slide)

(Slide 2)

I am pleased to report our milestones from the past fiscal year. First, we funded 67 projects worth a total of P40.98 million during the 12 months in review.

(Slide 3)

Majority of our trust fund earnings went to large grant and site projects in the past year. These community-led terrestrial and marine have proven as the best barometer of our impact on the ground.

Diverse environmental advocates also sought FPE grants to help build grassroots coalitions, promote public discussion, influence policy, and develop their capacities through training, research and symposia.

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(Slide 4)

From our frequent field visits and discussions with project partners, we saw the urgency to set clear roadmaps and reinforce a more holistic approach to conservation. The Board of Trustees and staff thus worked year-round on the following strategic initiatives that were also a response to an in-depth evaluation of our organizational track record:

(Slide 5)

First, we focused on nine project sites situated within key biodiversity areas. Giving support to as many as 22 sites had fragmented our assistance and led to uneven project outcomes. More sites also meant higher operational costs, redounding to smaller projects with lower potential to create impact. Our current funding limit per project reflects our thinly spread resources. By rationalizing our project footprint, we hope to engage more community partners and a broader ecosystem in every site.

(Slide 6)

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Second, the Board decided to take a longer view of FPE’s future. We thus formulated a new 10-year strategic plan (2015-2025) in consideration of the long-term needs and required gestation period of BCSD interventions. The typical five-year planning frame was inadequate for measuring results. Our new strategic plan aligns FPE’s project goals more closely with national and global conservation targets. We believe that the new long-term strategy presents a more realistic perspective of what we can contribute towards restoring and preserving our part of the planet.

Third, we aimed to double the size of our trust fund by year 2025 and manage it prudently over the same 10-year horizon. We are determined to generate project funds greater than the current P60 million a year from our investment. Even as we decrease our number of sites, environmental projects will need to be sustained for longer periods and therefore require a lot of resources. Our resource mobilization strategy will explore anew a debt-for-nature swap for the first

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time in two decades, carbon credits and other innovative financial instrumentalities.

(Slide 7)

Fourth, we maximized the counterpart contribution of our local and international development partners, thus mobilizing an additional P20.66 million for projects last year. These contributions came from our partnership with EU-FUNDESO for the Mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples’ Participation in Environmental Governance project, the USAID Upscaling Forest Restoration Efforts in Key Biodiversity Areas project, and the EU-AnthroWatch Consolidating Indigenous Peoples Forest Corridors through Sustainable Ancestral Domain Management project.

(Slide 8)

Fifth, we recognized on a growing scale how sustainability rests on livelihoods so we infused livelihood development into our new conservation management plan as a form of “conservation tradeoff”. This is to relieve the pressure on people to extract more resources

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from their area. In a watershed reserve in Negros Occidental, we urged farmers to plant and extract lemongrass as a financially rewarding option to their destructive coal-making business. For good measure, we distributed solar home systems as well in off-grid households to power TV sets, a mobile phone and up to four LED lanterns overnight. As a trade off, each family with a solar home system will establish a 1.5-hectare rainforest farm to buffer or protect remaining forests. (Slide 9)

Sixth, the evaluations confirmed that many of our partners on the ground were good project implementers. But there remains much to be done on the financial management side. Having strong financial systems would not only improve the governance and accountability of FPE grant recipients. It would also pave the way for them to effectively manage and grow their financial resources.

Seventh, FPE maintained its strategic partnerships with international and local

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development organizations. At the international level, FPE continues to be member of the International Union for the Conservation for Nature, and was previously given a seat in the Steering Committee of the GEF-Small Grants Program 5. (Just recently, FPE was selected as the Grants Manager of GEF-SGP5 in the Philippines). At the national level, we maintained our critical collaboration with the DENR-led National Greening Program. We extended our partnership with Globe Telecom to provide cellular phones and special SIM cards that automatically give the forest guards who use them a 50% discount on regular fees. The forest guards were also connected to BPI Globe Bangko to help them send and receive electronic cash transfers while in the field, and their insurance coverage was raised as well. Another unique tie-up we undertook last year was having the winners of the Ms. Earth pageant as ambassadors and program emcees during public events. We invited them to join our tree planting and school visits to help promote our advocacies, while they relied on FPE to help build their own capabilities to be good spokespersons for

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the environment. We also continue to provide support to

FPE3 and we are now sharing an office space with them.

(Slide 10)

Eight, FPE initiated a knowledge management roadmap beginning with the grants online-management information system. This year, the FPE grants online management information system was developed to make it easier to submit grant applications and receive immediate feedback from us regarding application status. It also serves as an interactive project tracking and monitoring system, which allows immediate generation of summary reports for project trending and decision-making. The Board also created a Knowledge Management Committee that would guide FPE in putting BCSD information and knowledge into action.

(Slide 11)

Last but not the least, in succeeding years, FPE will integrate disaster risk reduction in selected vulnerable sites and communities. The unprecedented level of human and ecological

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damage from typhoon Yolanda in November 2013 can happen again. We must be proactive in facing the onslaught of similar disasters. The Board immediately approved a project for Eastern Samar last year to complement the post-Yolanda efforts of other donors. FPE will help rehabilitate the ecosystems and natural resource-based livelihoods in Guiuan municipality and Gigantes Islands. Among the Foundation’s targets are to restore 50 hectares of mangrove green walls and 20 coral reef sites through 2015. Many of our projects already focus on community resilience and adaptation to the impacts of climate change. It is a long-term and cross-cutting strategy that the institution must be able to pursue.

(Last Slide)

In the years to come, we envision a dynamic and relevant FPE leading actions towards healthy ecosystems and resilient communities.

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