The Philippines Biodiversity and Watersheds Improved for Stronger Economy and Ecosystem Resilience (B+WISER) Program is a five-year initiative of the the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to help the Philippines better conserve and manage its forest biodiversity and watersheds. B+WISER aims to:
• Conserve biodiversity in forest areas;
• Reduce forest degradation in targeted priority watersheds;
• Build capacity to conserve biodiversity, manage forests, and support low emissions development; and,
• Contribute to disaster risk reduction at the subnational level. B+WISER expects to deliver the following results by 2017:
• Improve management of 780,000 hectares of forests/watersheds;
• Place 78,000 hectares of forests under forest restoration initiatives;
• Enhance biodiversity, forest and watershed conservation monitoring;
• Leverage $5 million from public-private partnerships (PPP); and
• Reduce 3.4 million metric tons and sequester 1.9 million metric tons of GHG (measured in CO2 equivalent). The B+WISER Program covers seven priority protected areas/watersheds:
• Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park (Region 2);
• Kaliwa-Upper Marikina Watersheds (Region 4a);
• Naujan Lake National Park (Region 4b);
• Quinali “A” Watershed (Region 5);
• Bago Watershed Forest Reserve (Region 6);
• Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park (Region 10); and
• Mt. Apo Natural Park (Region 11/12). The contents of this page are the sole responsibility of Chemonics International and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.
