Sultan Kudarat, Philippines, 26 June 2009 - “The changing weather has made farming harder for us. We lost all of our livelihoods. We can no longer depend on farming. The land is gone. Our children have stopped going to school, our food is not enough. In our village alone, more than a thousand hectares were lost,” said Virgilio Baño, a farmer from Kolambog, Isulan at a “climate hearing” held yesterday, the first in the Philippines, joining similar efforts elsewhere in the world.

“Climate hearings give people who are suffering the impact of climate change the chance to make their voices heard locally all the way to the international climate meetings where world leaders are deciding if they want to help poor people or not cope with climate change,” said spokesperson Kalayaan Pulido-Constantino for international aid agency Oxfam.

“The Allah Valley is a clear indication that climate change is starting to strain poor people's meager resources even more, exacerbating their experience of poverty” said local environment group AVLDA spokesperson Abdula Bansuan. “Because of the severe degradation of the tree cover in the mountainous areas of the Allah Valley, torrential rains easily cause the over-flow of the Allah River, flooding farmlands and thus harming livelihoods. In 2008, the villages of Lambayong and other Allah Valley areas lived through major flash floods and massive soil erosion along the riverbanks, displacing many communities,” Bansuan continued.

Farmer Magdalena Mansilla lost her home during the flood. This was her second, as the first was inundated too, in 2004. She now lives in a relocation site with her husband and three children, with the threat of another flood coming given the early onset of the rainy season. Another farmer, Joven Pineda, shared the pain of losing harvest: “You see your crops ready to be harvested, ready to pay your debts. And then the flood comes and destroys all of them. It is very, very hard.”

These scenarios will very likely play themselves out in other parts of the Philippines, which is the most vulnerable country to climate change impacts in Southeast Asia.

“This climate hearing is one of many growing voices clamouring for climate action. World leaders will meet in Copenhangen, Denmark, in December, and they need to know that Climate change is affecting poor people the most. Rich countries must stop the worst of future harm by signing a global deal to cut their domestic carbon emissions to keep global warming as far below 2 degrees Celsius and to pledge at least $150 billion each year to help developing countries adapt to unavoidable climate change,” Pulido-Constantino added.

Oxfam is an international campaign, development and humanitarian organization that works with others to end poverty and human suffering. In the Philippines, together with its partners, Oxfam works with poor people to sustain their livelihoods, reduce the risks of natural and human-made disasters such as armed conflict, and uphold the rights of civilians caught in crises. Oxfam strives to enable poor people have a voice in economic issues affecting them and supports poor women as they exercise leadership in transforming unequal relations. In 2009, Oxfam joins the international community in calling for rich countries to sign a fair and safe deal on climate change in Copenhagen, in December. //ends