Rodel D. Lasco

Rodel D. Lasco
Oscar M. Lopez Center (Philippines)

PhD

About

213
Publications
306,190
Reads
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6,302
Citations
Additional affiliations
April 2004 - December 2020
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
Position
  • Climate change scientist
June 1981 - October 2004
University of the Philippines Los Baños
Position
  • Professor (Full)

Publications

Publications (213)
Article
Full-text available
Agroforestry is an important carbon sequestration strategy because of carbon storage potential in its multiple plant species and soil as well as its applicability in agricultural lands and in reforestation. The study was conducted in selected coffee-based agroforestry farms in Gleno, Ermera District, Timor Leste to determine the amount of carbon st...
Article
Full-text available
Agroforestry is an important carbon sequestration strategy because of carbon storage potential in its multiple plant species and soil as well as its applicability in agricultural lands and in reforestation. The study was conducted in selected coffee-based agroforestry farms in Gleno, Ermera District, Timor Leste to determine the energy used in the...
Technical Report
Full-text available
The IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report is based on the three Working Group contributions to the AR6 as well as on the three Special Reports prepared in this assessment cycle.
Article
Forest ecosystems play an indispensable role in addressing various pressing sustainability and social-ecological challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem services deterioration, hence the monitoring of the world's forests is crucial. As part of the global forest assessment workflow, a forest is generally classified and ma...
Chapter
Full-text available
The Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a comprehensive assessment of the scientific literature relevant to climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The report recognizes the interactions of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societie...
Article
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Forest ecosystems play an indispensable role in addressing various pressing sustainability and social-ecological challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. However, global forest loss has been, and still is today, an important issue. Here, based on spatially explicit data, we show that over the past 60 years (1960–2019), the global fo...
Article
The Philippines’ vulnerability to climate change necessitates the adoption of strategies to strengthen the most vulnerable sectors and diminish severe climate change impacts in the future. This study assessed the implications of recent findings of climate change science on the country’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 10 prio...
Article
The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. A warming planet could exacerbate long-standing environmental problems in the country. The paper explores this link in the management of forest ecosystems, marine ecosystems, and wastes. Natural ecosystems in the Philippines such as forests can play a critical role in both c...
Article
Full-text available
Two related single-valued landscape fragmentation indices D and F are proposed, based on patch aggregation, shape complexity, and percent of the focal pixels on the landscape, and are computed using Fragstats metrics on a colonization landscape continuously fragmented over 36 years. The same was done for two existing single-valued fragmentation ind...
Article
Full-text available
Two related single-valued landscape fragmentation indices D and F are proposed, based on patch aggregation, shape complexity, and percent of the focal pixels on the landscape, and are computed using Fragstats metrics on a colonization landscape continuously fragmented over 36 years. The same was done for two existing single-valued fragmentation ind...
Article
Laguna Lake is the largest source of fish catch from all lakes in the country providing food and livelihood to millions of people. Recently, there were attempts to remove all fish pens and cages from the lake, presumably because of their adverse impact on water quality and pollution. In this paper, we provide an overview of the lake ecology and we...
Article
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With the intensifying challenges of global environmental change, sustainability, and biodiversity conservation, the monitoring of the world's remaining forests has become more important than ever. Today, Earth observation technologies, particularly remote sensing, are at the forefront of forest cover monitoring worldwide. Given the current conceptu...
Chapter
The private sector, encompassing a range of actors, is increasingly exposed to climate change and related disaster risks which are disrupting business operations. These risks are also posing a threat to human security at large, given the key role of the private sector in economic growth, job generation, and poverty reduction. While the role of the...
Article
Many areas in the country are rich in biodiversity but are not assessed as they are not part of the identified protected areas of the country. One of which is the Kalahan Forest Reserve (KFR) managed by the Ikalahans, a cultural minority group that practices sustainable agroforestry systems. The study used a modified quadrat sampling method (QSM) w...
Chapter
Full-text available
As countries advance in greenhouse gas accounting for climate change mitigation, consistent estimates of aboveground net biomass change are needed. Countries with limited forest monitoring capabilities in the tropics and sub‐ tropics rely on IPCC 2006 default rates, which are values per ecological zone, per continent. Similarly, research into fores...
Article
This study examined the involvement of women in agricultural decision-making among farming households in Ligao City, Albay, Philippines and related this to enhancement or decline of their adaptive capacity to extreme weather events. Data were collected through a household survey in the three selected barangays representing coastal, lowland and upla...
Book
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The IPCC warns that the window to keep global temperatures down to less than 2°C is rapidly closing. Can the Philippines help reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, even as it seeks to accelerate national development? The Oscar M. Lopez Center, in partnership with the Climate Change Commission, recently released the Philippine Climate C...
Article
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Climate change adaptation is vital for farmers in developing countries due to the high vulnerability of agricultural livelihoods. Scientific literature proposed that organic farming is a promising adaptation strategy, but micro-level studies are lacking. This study compared the adaptive capacity to climate risks of organic and conventional vegetabl...
Book
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The ASEAN Guidelines for Agroforestry Development is an important milestone towards increasing the prosperity, connectivity, resilience and security of the peoples of ASEAN Member States. Taken as a whole, the Guidelines form a framework in which development can take place.
Article
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To meet the growing demand for climate change information to guide national and local adaptation decision-making in the Philippines, the climate science and services community is producing an increasing volume of future climate data using a range of modelling approaches. However, there is a significant methodological challenge in how to best compar...
Book
Full-text available
This report is an assessment of the current understanding on climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation in the Philippines. It focuses on ecosystems, freshwater resources, coastal systems and low-lying areas, agriculture and fisheries, and human health. The depth and breadth of assessment vary across chapters due to the uneven availabi...
Article
This article compares and assesses eight remotely sensed maps of Philippine forest cover in the year 2010. We examined eight Forest versus Non-Forest maps reclassified from eight land cover products: the Philippine Land Cover, the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Land Cover, the Landsat Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF), the MODIS VCF, the MODIS La...
Article
Full-text available
Planting trees to sequester carbon dioxide mitigates climate change, but it has been contended that insufficient attention is given to the quality of the germplasm established in afforestation/reforestation programmes, limiting sequestration opportunities. To understand current practices in the choice, sourcing and delivery of tree planting materia...
Article
Full-text available
An instrument to measure School Adaptive Capacity Index was developed using livelihood assets and school management as the main determinants using the theory driven approach to indicator development. Randomly selected teachers from the 38 public elementary and high schools from Bay and Los Baños Laguna, grouped according to the effects of floods ex...
Article
Full-text available
An instrument to measure School Adaptive Capacity Index was developed using livelihood assets and school management as the main determinants using the theory driven approach to indicator development. Randomly selected teachers from the 38 public elementary and high schools from Bay and Los Baños Laguna, grouped according to the effects of floods ex...
Chapter
This chapter focuses on the ‘food vs fuel’ controversy around biofuel production, demonstrating ways in which the two can be supportive rather than in conflict. This competition between food and fuel can be avoided, in particular by using crops for which their use in the human food chain is not in conflict with their use as a sources of biofuels. M...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract Majority of rice cultivation areas in the Philippines are susceptible to excessive flooding owing to intense rainfall events. The study introduces the use of fine scale flood inundation modelling to map cultivation areas in Apalit, a rice-producing municipality located in the province of Pampanga in the Philippines. The study used a LiDAR-...
Article
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Ecosystem services commonly valued by the society usually pertains to marketable ecosystem services while non-marketable ecosystem services, such as biodiversity, are usually left unaccounted for, making it less priority and beset with problems such as insufficient funding for conservation activities. Low appreciation on the economic value of these...
Article
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Global economic change and policy interventions are driving transitions from long-fallow swidden (LFS) systems to alternative land uses in Southeast Asia’s uplands. This study presents a systematic review of how these transitions impact upon livelihoods and ecosystem services in the region. Over 17 000 studies published between 1950 and 2015 were n...
Article
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The Layawan Watershed is one of the important major rivers emanating from Mt. Malindang Range Natural Park (MMNRP) that supplies water to Oroquieta City and nearby towns. Over the years, different anthropogenic activities, together with changing global climate, negatively affected the park. Studies show that the water produced by the watershed has...
Research
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This Science-Policy (SP) Brief highlights the state of loss and damage assessment system in the Philippines (process, actors, and gaps). It proposes a loss and damage framework for the Philippines and provides recommendations for the improvement of the system.
Article
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Recent studies have highlighted the importance of trees and agroforestry in climate change adaptation and mitigation. This paper analyzes how farmers, members of their households, and community leaders in the Wahig–Inabanga watershed, Bohol province in the Philippines perceive of climate change, and define and value the roles of trees in coping wit...
Research
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Lowland rice cultivation is the main source of staple food for the Philippines. It is mainly found in floodplains where prolonged and deep floods are commonly experienced, destroying crops and affecting rice farmers’ productivity. This Science-Policy Brief demonstrates the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology for producing detailed...
Research
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Building Back Better After Haiyan: Challenges, Considerations and Way Forward
Research
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The Philippines is the second most vulnerable country to climate change and natural disasters. Typhoon Haiyan exposed the vulnerability of the Filipino society to extreme events, particularly the poor who live in hazard-prone areas. Analyzing the vulnerability allows decision-makers to recognize and address its underlying causes as part of managing...
Research
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There is a global consensus that the Earth's climate is changing. While climate change is expected to have significant impacts across different sectors, its impacts on the agricultural sector are especially pronounced. This science-policy brief seeks to review available knowledge on climate change impacts on the agricultural sector and identify opp...
Article
Full-text available
An analysis of tropical cyclone (TC) data from 1951 to 2013 in the Philippines revealed that an average of 19.4 TCs enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) every year and nine TCs cross the country. Time series analysis of the TC datasets shows no significant trends in the annual number of TCs in PAR but a slightly decreasing trend in the...
Article
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Climate-related hazards can lead to disasters in communities with lower socioeconomic conditions, inadequate access to basic social and infrastructure services, and poor institutions. The impacts of Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines in 2013 not only highlighted the exposure of several cities but also indicated the underlying causes of thei...
Article
This study determined the potential effects of present and future climates on the geographical distribution of Shorea palosapis (Blanco) Merr. and Shorea polysperma (Blanco) Merr in Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park (NSMNP) using Maximum Entropy model. A total of seven models were generated for each species: one Climatic Only model, four Partial m...
Article
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Smallholder farmers in the Philippines, whose survival and livelihood largely depend on the environment, constantly face risks and bear the impacts of the changing climate. This paper explored how climate change knowledge as well as attitudes and perceptions to risk of smallholder farmers from upland, lowland and coastal ecosystems influence the ma...
Article
Climate change threatens to derail the lives and livelihoods of farmers all over the world if appropriate adaptation measures are notput in place. Smallholder farmers, more so those in developing countries like the Philippines, are especially at risk because of inherent socio-economic characteristic and environmental factors limiting their capacity...
Article
Full-text available
Although agroforestry has been promoted in the Philippines through various programs and policies, the adoption of this practice is slower than expected. Determining the underlying reasons for the slow and declining adoption of agroforestry is vital, especially within the combined context of food insecurity, agricultural intensification and climate...
Article
Full-text available
The study described the impacts of floods both on the delivery of education services and on the schooling of children from public schools in two lakeshore municipalities of the Laguna Lake, Philippines. Data were gathered from a survey among teachers; key informant interviews (KII) with local government, education officials and school heads; and fo...
Article
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The destruction left by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines highlighted not only the exposure of the country but also the underlying vulnerability of barangays (villages) to climate-related hazards. This study used geographic information system (GIS) tools to characterize social vulnerability to climate-related hazards of barangays of Tacloban City a...
Article
Full-text available
The destruction caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the coastal areas of central Philippines drew greater international attention to the vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme weather and climate events. Mangrove ecosystems enhance coastal resilience by acting as barriers against storms and its impacts. However, given the strength of and damage br...
Article
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Typhoons cause damage to mangrove ecosystems, hampering their delivery of ecosystem goods and services, including coastal protection. We examined the vegetation resistance (VR) and seedling regeneration potential (SRP) of three mangrove genera: Rhizophora, Sonneratia and Avicennia at the seafront areas. We assessed genus-specific resistance to and...
Conference Paper
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Swidden (or shifting) agriculture has been practised in the uplands of Southeast Asia for centuries and is estimated to support up to 500 million people, most of whom are poor and rely on natural resources. Dramatic forest and agricultural land-use transformations have resulted in social, economic and ecological impacts that have affected the exten...
Article
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Forests are important sources of livelihoods to millions of people and contribute to national economic development of many countries. In addition, they are vital sources and sinks of carbon and contribute to the rate of climate change. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has been collecting and presenting data on global forest resources and fo...
Poster
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This poster highlights the success of previous conferences since 2012 in providing a venue for sharing climate-related researches, while also determining the state of climate knowledge in the Philippines through the submitted researches and scientific papers.
Poster
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This poster highlights the state of loss and damage assessment system in the Philippines (process, actors, and gaps). It proposes a loss and damage framework for the Philippines and provides recommendations for the improvement of the system.
Article
Full-text available
The degree of knowledge on ecosystem services of trees largely depend on the farmers’ experiential association including goods and services derived from the trees. This paper sought to determine the farmers’ knowledge on the ecosystem services derived from trees found within the Molawin-Dampalit Watershed. Specifically, it aimed to acharacterize th...
Poster
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From 2007-2010 an estimated 23.76 million US dollars were lost annually due to damages caused by flooding to rice agriculture in the Philippines. This figure may increase due to the increasing magnitude of weather events because of climate change. Apalit is a municipality in Pampanga, Philippines where rice agriculture has been suffering from the n...
Poster
Full-text available
Haiyan is considered to be one of the most destructive typhoons to have hit land ever recorded. The destruction left by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines highlighted not only the exposure of the country but also the underlying vulnerability of barangays (villages) to climate-related hazards. This study used Geographic Information System (GIS) to ch...
Article
Full-text available
This article confirms that climate change is indeed a real phenomenon as observed and experienced by smallholder farmers in the Molawin-Dampalit Sub-Watershed. Using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, the smallholder farmers articulated their own indications of climate change. These include increasing temperature, stronger and...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The Philippines has been experiencing and will continue to experience devastating climate-related disasters given the current and projected impacts of climate change. Loss and damage (L&D) is inevitable. This study aims to create a framework that links loss and damage with climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies...
Poster
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This study explores the use of LiDAR for agriculture by introducing a rice cultivation zoning classification based on flood depth and duration. Rice agriculture in the municipality of Apalit has been experiencing the effects of flooding leading to reduced cropping cycles and land conversion. The study’s main objective is to make use of LiDAR data t...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The destruction left by Typhoon Haiyanin the Philippineshighlighted not only the exposure of the country but also the underlying vulnerability of barangays (villages) to climate-related hazards. This study utilized Geographic Information System (GIS) to characterize social vulnerability to climate-related hazards of barangays of Tacloban City and O...
Article
Full-text available
Tropical reforestation (TR) has been highlighted as an important intervention for climate change mitigation because of its carbon storage potential. TR can also play other frequently overlooked, but significant, roles in helping society and ecosystems adapt to climate variability and change. For example, reforestation can ameliorate climate-associa...