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| His Excellency Alistair
MacDonald, ambassador of the European Commission to the
Philippines and Her Excellency Inger Ulvedt, Swedish ambassador
to the Philippines (left photo, second and third from
right) are flanked by Mayor Luna Piezas of Tubigon (far
right) and Gov. Erico B. Aumentado (far left) during the
opening of the exhibit of the ecoBudget program. Middle
photo shows Dr. Mario Alberto Bartoli, deputy head of
the Italian Embassy (l). Right photo shows Mayor Khanna
Nagarju of Guntur, India with Gov. Aumentado and Vice
Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera during the welcome dinner at
the Bohol Beach Club. |
His
Excellency Alistair MacDonald, ambassador of the European
Commission to the Philippines, Her Excellency Inger Ulvedt,
Swedish ambassador to the Philippines, and Dr. Mario Alberto
Bartoli, the Deputy Head of the Italian Embassy to the Philippines
graced the final conference of the ecoBudget-Asia Project,
which was attended by not less than a hundred participants
from the European Union, Sweden, Italy, India, Thailand, and
the Philippines last Oct. 15 to 16, at the Bohol Beach Club
in Panglao, Bohol.
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The
conference with the theme, "ecoBudget: An Instrument
to Good Local Resource Management and Governance,"
which was organized by the Provincial Planning and Development
Office (PPDO) of the Provincial Government of BOhol,
convened the ecoBudget-Asia Project Consurtium comprised
of the cities of Bologna (Italy), Guntur, (India), Vaxjo
(Sweden), and the Province of Bohol through the municipality
of Tubigon. The four cities and municipalities together
with international experts on sustainability management
tools shared their experiences, achievements, and
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impacts
in using the ecoBudget as a tool for resource management and
governance. For the part of Bohol, the Municipality of Tubigon
shared their experiences with the program, which started in
April 2005 after having been chosen through a consultative meeting
involving representatives from 14 municipalities from the Provincial
Government of Bohol, Non-Government Organizations, and the Academe.
Among
the distinguished guests welcomed by Gov. Erico B. Aumentado
during the opening ceremonies include: Mayor Khanna Nagaraju
of Guntur, India, Andrea Burzacchini of ICLEI-Europe, Pamela
Lama, the commissioner of Vaxjo, Sweden, Anders Franzen, the
Development Manager of Vaxjo, Sweden, Emani Kumar and Vic
Acquitania of ICLEI-Southeast Asia as well as the different
mayors and municipal planning and development officers of
the different towns in Bohol, which are potential implementers
of the ecoBudget.
ecoBudget
is an environmental management system developed by the International
Council for Local Environment Initiatives or ICLEI-Local Governments
for Sustainability and is aimed to be utilized by local governments.
The system follows the financial budgeting procedure and allows
local authorities to keep track with its environmental spending
within an environmental budget. It does not, however, assign
monetary value to environment but allows quantitative long
term and annual targets that the local council may ratify,
which in turn may influence the direction of local environment
policies and programs. With an environmental master budget,
targets are oriented toward sustainable management of the
environmental resources of the municipal territory. The ecoBudget-Asia
is a project co-funded by the European Union's Asia Urbs programme
and coordinated by the Municipality of Bologna. It aims to
transfer the knowledge and experiences of eco-Budget in European
cities and municipalities to their Asian counterparts. (VMOT-PGMA)
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