[av_dropcap2 color=”custom” custom_bg=”#45b39c”]E[/av_dropcap2]ngr. Nelson P. Devanadera is now the new Executive Director of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development Staff effective February 1, 2014. His appointment was confirmed last Jan 30, 2014, during the 207th Regular Council Meeting of PCSD. Under his
belt is more than 15 years of experience in project implementation and development in the public sector, He spent most of his professional life in Palawan.
Right after finishing his degree in the University of the Philippines, Los Banos in 1976, Engr. Devanadera started his career in the government service at the Palawan Integrated Area Development Project Office -PIADPO (former PCSDS). He occupied the positions of Senior Regional Planner Chief in Social and Physical Infrastructure Development Division, Chief Development Coordinator of the Project Planning department, Director for Field operations, Director for planning and project Development and Area Manager of the Area Development Management Unit.
He left PIADP to serve as the provincial Planning and Development Coordinator of the province of Palawan. He also became the Cluster Chief of Operations, Executive Director of Special Program Services. After that, he returned to PCSD and assumed the temporary status of executive director of PCSD from August 2004 until December 2007. Since then, he has worked at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as OIC Assistant Director (Director III) of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB). And now he is back where he started his career in public service.
Pushing for Intensified ECANization
With the onslaught of in-migration, tourism boom and rapid development in the province of Palawan, the balance between evelopment and environmental conservation and protection has now become critical. And when asked how he will strengthen the
implementation of the main strategy of the Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan (SEP), which is the Environmental Critical Areas Network (ECAN), his answer was to provide legal instruments to harmonize the integration of ECAN into Comprehensive
Land Use Plans (CLUPs) mainstreaming ECAN into land use planning.
“The integration of the ECAN into the CLUP is already an ongoing strategy. However, efforts to achieve full integration require legislation and guidelines which are currently lacking. And that is what we intend to do, to bring down to the municipal level concrete and comprehensive guidelines to promote ECAN through “ecanization”,” he said.
The objective of this ecanization is to improve the quality of life through delivery of sustainable development in municipalities like
development that will fulfill food and water needs of the people, protection of natural capital, sustainable income from expanded
economic and agricultural base, and improved access to green investments.
With the mainstreaming of ECAN, the CLUPs will be strengthened by compliance to the standards set by the ECAN. The SEP becomes will be strengthened by compliance to the standards set by the ECAN. The SEP becomes makers will be given a chance to attempt complementation, harmony, and integration of SEP-sanctioned ECAN zones with municipally approved land use zones. The ECAN will also be made a component of local investment portfolio as part of municipal investment and budget plans.
It will foster participation and partnership of all those involved in the planning process and cultivate political will among local officials who will be tasked to deliberate on and pass significant ordinances and resolutions pertaining to management of ECAN zones in their jurisdiction.
“We believe that our strong alliance with our partners and all other stakeholders in the province will bring a meaningful and dynamic change in making Palawan a showcase for balancing conservation and development,” Devanadera said.