Capacity Status on Biodiversity Protection Related Services among Local Government Units in Region 10

The high diversity of environmental situations in the Philippines demands that local environments and natural resources be governed in depth, in their specific circumstances, and in each location. No state agency has the ability, mandate, and capacity to do this task more than Local Government Units (LGUs). This study focused on determining the capacity of the Province of Bukidnon to assume bigger roles by analyzing its capacity development (CapDev) agenda for environmental management, the capacity status of the Province, its common and unique CapDev agenda, and its direction of the prioritization of the CapDev agenda. The study utilized the document analysis approach. The result revealed a HIGH CAPACITY status on the part of the Province of Bukidnon in terms of implementing the devolution requirements on environment services and biodiversity protection-related services, which means the LGU has evident and developed 60– 79% capacity in implementing the devolution requirements. LOW CAPACITY status on the part of Cities means LGU has basic and limited or 20– 39% capacity in implementing the devolution requirements. NO CAPACITY status on the part of Municipalities means the LGU has very little to no or 0 – 19% capacity in implementing devolution requirements.  Programs, activities, and projects which fall under the pillar of competencies call for prioritization. In the full implementation of the devolution of functions, indicative capacity development priorities in the Province of Bukidnon focus more on the prioritization of capacity development interventions under the capacity pillar on competencies followed by management systems, structure, and enabling policies.

Keywords: Environmental management, Biodiversity Protection, devolution, capacity development, environmental services