Philippines Journal - GAIA Regional Meeting on Plastic Strategy Day #1

When I landed (October 19, 2015), Manila was raining. Philippines was hit by typhoon at least until this mid-week.

"And I'll be lying here waiting, hoping love will come my way. But if the sun's still shining, I'll save it for another day.
Save it for a rainy day", Rainy Day, The Corrs (1996)

The participants stayed at Isis International Women's House (a lodging and meeting house run by local NGO). Rooms are of a dormitory type, with bunk beds and a few individual rooms, and shared bathrooms separate for males and females (Zero Waste Guidelines and Travel Information issued by GAIA).

View from window.

I was sleepy all day long. But the meeting must go on!

There are 14 participants (exclude GAIA). 

We had six agendas for this day (October 19, 2015), those were:
1. Introduction about the meeting
Led by Christie Keith, International GAIA Coordinator, based in Berkeley, California, U.S. She told us the importance of meetings and, the most interesting thing for me that, she told us that research led by Jenna Jambeck, that showed Indonesia is the second biggest country in the world throwing away plastic waste to the ocean, had left big questions for us about the background of conclusion. It's because China, Indonesia, and Philippines had different coastal area (or maybe other indicator related to production or plastic waste distributed to ocean).

2. Participants’ presentation
We had participants from China, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, and Singapore, and Christie from US. They had a lot of good work environmental activities. You can check their website:
a. Mother Earth Foundation
b. Eco Canton
c. Nature University
d. Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik (of course this is mine!)
e. Eco Waste Coalition
f. Friends of Nature
g. Thanal India
h. Perkumpulan YPBB (this was mine!)
i. Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP)

3. Marine pollution presentation “Marine Wildlife”

He's also a musician, I forgot what his name is. Haha. (Photo credit: David Sutasurya)

He was also showing us data from Jambeck's research. Then, Christie explained that Jambeck's research supported by Ocean Conservancy that approach incinerator. Hmmmm, so we must analyse first any research that mention our country. 

Lunch! I'm a vegetarian on that day! hahaha

4. Result of plastic survey presentation
GAIA made survey about what kind of work organisation did. The survey still on progress, so I can't tell you more about this. FYI, my organisation is the only one who works in retailer sector. Yeyeyeye....
5. Concept note and resources needed presentation and discussion
3C (Capture, Challenge, Change) is our concept note. Again, I can't tell you details now. We'll publish it when we ready.  
6. Briefing for funders meeting agenda
It just briefing, what do you want to know? LOL

to be continued...