Biodiversity and Resilience Cooperative Agreement - Conserve biodiversity and advance climate adaptation and mitigation at the national and subnational levels.

Through a coopertaive agreement, this activity will conserve biodiversity and advance climate adaptation and mitigation at the national and subnational levels. To enable the sustainability of activity outcomes and capture the diversity of potential conservation and climate actions at different scales, this activity will support actions at three levels:

(a) the national level to support policy development, institutional capacity and replication;

(b) the sub-national level to support strategic programming and implementation of conservation actions at the provincial level; and, (c ) the sub-national level in selected geographies to demonstrate innovative conservation and climate actions in landscapes and seascapes.

The Activity is expected to work with national government agencies such as but not limited to, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Climate Change Commission (CCC), Department of Finance (DoF), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Justice (DoJ), in areas of developing policies, plans, incentive mechanisms, livelihood support, knowledge management, capacity building, implementing and monitoring national and sub-national level nature-based solutions.

In Luzon, Palawan is the focus of this activity for strategic programming in consideration of USAID’s long-term partnership with its provincial government, the presence of a strong environmental civil society network, the ecological significance of the province to the Philippines and Southeast Asia region, and its climate mitigation potential.

In Visayas and Mindanao, Bohol and Siargao Island are also strategic areas for programming because of USAID’s past and recent successful partnerships and programs which Biodiversity and Resilience can build on. Site-based demonstration work will be in Cagayan Valley, Eastern Visayas, and Tawi-Tawi, based on their high biological significance, socio-economic vulnerability, high exposure to climate-induced disasters and other natural hazards, and promise for reducing land-based emissions.