Climate resilience and peacebuilding

The successive typhoons that have hit our shores over the past few months have caused massive damage to communities and the significant loss of lives. We have witnessed heartbreaking scenes of homes being swept away, millions worth of crops destroyed, and families wondering how to rebuild.

- SECRETARY CARLITO G. GALVEZ, JR.

This is the difficult truth we cannot ignore: climate change is affecting every aspect of life in the Philippines. Each storm that has struck our country is a painful reminder of how vulnerable our nation has become, especially in areas that are already burdened by conflict, poverty, and underdevelopment.

But what often goes unnoticed is how these typhoons have deepened the fragility and heightened tensions on the ground. When a disaster takes away people’s livelihood, competition over limited resources intensifies and peace becomes more difficult to sustain. Climate change has now become a peace and security concern.

This is why the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that was forged between the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) and the Alliance of Bioversity International and The International Center For Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), through its Consultative Group On International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), during the recent 5th Peace Research Conference is crucial to our agency as we carry out the challenging task of building on and sustaining the gains of peace across the country.

CGIAR is among the world’s largest agricultural research consortia, with more than 9,000 researchers working across 89 countries. Its expertise has guided governments and institutions in addressing interconnected challenges in agriculture, food systems, water resources, biodiversity, and climate resilience.

Adam Savelli, Regional Lead for Asia-Pacific on the CGIAR Climate Security Team, explained that their work is about finding solutions.

“At the Alliance, we specialize in researching how land, water, and food systems can address the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and malnutrition,” Savelli said.