The Philippines must double its forest cover for it to withstand stronger floods and weather disturbances brought by climate change. Haribon Foundation’s Head of Strategic Partnerships Erika Bergara gave this assessment in the season finale of The Chairman’s Report, a public affairs program hosted by Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO).
The episode, aired on 12 September 2025, underscored how reforestation, mangrove restoration, and biodiversity protection can serve as cost-effective and sustainable alternatives to man-made flood control projects.
“We need 54% forest cover in our forests. Right now, we’re at 24. We need to double,” Bergara said, citing Haribon’s decade-long restoration work in Quezon Province that transformed landslide-prone mountainsides into safer and more resilient ecosystems.
CFO Chairperson, Dante “Klink” Ang II, who hosts the program, pressed the urgency of integrating nature-based solutions in disaster mitigation strategies.
“As we’re talking about this, maybe there should be more discussion between Haribon and public works. Because building concrete seawalls may not be as effective as planting mangroves. The mangroves will probably last longer,” Ang said.
Bergara agreed, pointing out that mangroves not only serve as natural coastal protection barriers but also sustain livelihoods.
“If we invest in reforesting our mangroves, we’re actually creating or supporting a larger coastal industry as well in protecting all the other life that happens in our coasts,” she said.
Beyond climate resilience, the episode also placed the Philippines on the global biodiversity map as one of only 17 “megadiverse” countries.
“In our lands and waters, there’s so many different kinds of wildlife and so many different kinds of species, different kinds of trees, different kinds of coral. And the diversity of this is only seen where we are. A lot of these different species can only be found in the Philippines,” Bergara said.
Ang added that greater appreciation is needed for this natural wealth: “They’re probably sitting on wealth that they don’t know about. And so they don’t get to harness it, much less appreciate it.”
With biodiversity loss and climate disasters looming, Haribon and CFO has partnered to strengthen diaspora engagement in biodiversity efforts and promoting resilient communities through the agency’s Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino (LINKAPIL), a program initiated by the CFO to systematically facilitate the engagement of overseas-based Filipinos in national development initiatives.
