In the beginning of October the Philippine province Isabela got hit by the typhoon ‘Parma’. At least 300 people died and there was a lot of damage. The provincial government of Antwerp decided to release 5000 euros extra to support the Philippinian province in the education and equipment of a rescue-team. This support makes part of a collaboration that was concluded in springtime between the province Isabela and the province of Antwerp. The latter has almost 20 years of expertise in sustainable development in the Philippines.

The beginning of the cooperation
Since 2003 the cooperant of the province of Antwerp works on the islandgroup Calamian. The livability of the islands has declined severely. As soon as the consumable means of one island had been depleted, the local government moved to another island. The province of Antwerp, in cooperation with the Belgian ngo North-South, and local partners, build important expertise around sustainability and subsistence. In 2009, the province wanted to elaborate its support to the Philippines. Antwerp came into contact with governor Grace Pacada of the province Isabela. The fight of Pacada against patronage politics in her province and against local problems such as illegal deforestation, environmental pollution and corruption made her a local celebrity.

Permaculture
In mutual consultation and with the support of the ngo North-South (Belgium) and Cabiokid foundation (Philippines) the provinces worked out a cooperation agreement with a term of 6 years. This agreement is called STEP (Sustainable Technologies and Entrepreneurial Permaculture Program) and refers to a method to design living conditions. The goal of the program is to develop long-term solutions on the base of the available elements of nature for the diverse facets of life for the local inhabitants: housing, food production, development of equipment and environmental protection. This is the basic principle of permaculture: trying to realize the best result with the least energy and the least effort. In practice this boils down to understanding the eco-system you are living in before you can imitate the way in which nature uses her own means. A simple example of this is building houses with local natural building material that are better fit to resist storms and floods. Through open learning centers the necessary technologies that are adapted to the different eco-systems and the communities of the province can be developed. These open centers should bring the project closer to the local inhabitants. Apart from the development of the permaculture-principle there is also a lot of attention in the agreement  to fair trade and ecotourism.

The local impact of climate change
A week before the tropical storm Parma hit the province Isabela, the typhoon Ketsana swirled over the capital Manilla and its surroundings and also there left behind a track of destruction. The inhabitants of the Philippines are every year prepared to monsoon rains, but this year the storms lead to the heaviest floods in 40 years. Ketsana  and Parma are considered by climate-experts as the first signs of climate change. According to Jerry Velasquez, of the UN-organisation of disaster reduction  ISDR “are the Philippines one of the hotspots of climate change. What happened during Ketsana and Parma was not yet the worst.” [1]

Promising cooperation between antipodes
According to Dieter Goossens, head of North-Southpolicy in Antwerp, the province hopes with its engagement of 6 years to strengthen the resistance of the local population against climate change  in the longer term. With the 5000 euros of extra support from Antwerp, the province also supports the more urgent projects of Isabela. The released means will be deployed in a program for training and equipment of a rescueteam. The team has to be employable coming typhoon season.