Rodel Lasco | University of the Philippines Los Baños (original) (raw)

Papers by Rodel Lasco

Climate change is one of the primary concerns of humanity today. The third IPCC assessment report... more Climate change is one of the primary concerns of humanity today. The third IPCC assessment report concludes that there is strong evidence that human activities have affected the world’s climate (IPCC 2001). The rise in global temperatures has been

LASCO, RD, GUIllERMO, I. Q., CRUZ, R. V. 0., BANTAYAN, NC & PULHIN, FB 2004. Carbon stocks as... more LASCO, RD, GUIllERMO, I. Q., CRUZ, R. V. 0., BANTAYAN, NC & PULHIN, FB 2004. Carbon stocks assessment of a secondary forest in Mount Makiling Forest Reserve, Philippines. Tropical forests are important source and sink of carbon (C). However, there are limited ...

Journal of Sustainable Development, 2012

Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2016

Although agroforestry has been promoted in the Philippines through various programs and policies,... more 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 change. Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this study identified the selection criteria and the priority farming systems and tree species of smallholder farmers in Lantapan, Bukidnon. Findings showed that financial benefit was the main consideration of both male and female farmers for crop selection along with other aspects of well-being (i.e. regulatory services, food security). Results indicated that both groups perceived crop-based farms as more beneficial than tree-based farms. In terms of tree species, women preferred plantation crops and timber trees, while men favored fruit trees. These results showed that it is important to en...

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2019

Climate change adaptation is vital for farmers in developing countries due to the high vulnerabil... more 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 vegetable farmers in La Trinidad, Benguet in the Philippines. Guided by the Sustainable Livelihoods framework, thirty variables under the five livelihood capitals were used to compute Household Adaptive Capacity Index (HACI). Organic farming households have higher adaptive capacity than the conventional group, and have higher natural, financial, human, and social capital. The higher adaptive capacity of organic farmers was due to farm practices related to organic agriculture such as crop diversification, sustainable land management, and participation in organizations. This indicated that organic farming potentially enhances adaptive capacity of ve...

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2019

This study examined the involvement of women in agricultural decision-making among farming househ... more 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 upland communities. More than 50% of husbands solely made decisions on choice of food crops, cash crops, tree species, and farm production. This parallel findings in the Philippines showing male dominance in agricultural production. Nevertheless, women still participated in decision-making in a limited way as 13-16% of them singly decided on behalf of the household while 30-38% made decisions together with the husband. Following the Sustainable Livelihood Framework, an adaptive capacity index was developed for the households. The analysis revealed that 96.17% of the respondents had low (<0.5) and 3.83% had medium adaptive capacity (>0.5)...

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2021

Two related single-valued landscape fragmentation indices D and F are proposed, based on patch ag... more 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 indices, i.e., the Matheron index based solely on normalized unlike joins, and the Normalized Hypsometric Curve (NHMC) index from GUIDOS Toolbox. All were plotted chronologically, and also against percent non-forest (%nf) of the landscape, and the trajectories were compared for behavior. The NHMC index starts high even if deforestation is low, and continues increasing even further as deforestation continues, while the other three indices all start close to zero and increase gradually. F mimics D very closely, and the Matheron index only behaves differently from F and D at the end of the data range. The deviation may be due to patch aggregatio...

This dataset was moved to: https://doi.org/10.34725/DVN/28828N/A

Abstract. The role of forestry projects in carbon conservation and sequestration is receiving muc... more Abstract. The role of forestry projects in carbon conservation and sequestration is receiving much attention because of their role in the mitigation of climate change. The main objective of the study is to analyze the potential of the Upper Magat Watershed for a carbon sequestration project. The three main development components of the project are forest conservation, tree plantations, and agroforestry farm development. At Year 30, the watershed can attain a net carbon benefit of 19.5 M tC at a cost of US $ 34.5 M. The potential leakage of the project is estimated using historical experience in technology adoption in watershed areas in the Philippines and a high adoption rate. Two leakage scenarios were used: baseline and project leakage scenarios. Most of the leakage occurs in the first 10 years of the project as displacement of livelihood occurs during this time. The carbon lost via leakage is estimated to be 3.7 M tC in the historical adoption scenario, and 8.1 M tC under the enh...

Climate change is one of the primary concerns of humanity today. The third IPCC assessment report... more Climate change is one of the primary concerns of humanity today. The third IPCC assessment report concludes that there is strong evidence that human activities have affected the world’s climate (IPCC 2001). The rise in global temperatures has been

LASCO, RD, GUIllERMO, I. Q., CRUZ, R. V. 0., BANTAYAN, NC & PULHIN, FB 2004. Carbon stocks as... more LASCO, RD, GUIllERMO, I. Q., CRUZ, R. V. 0., BANTAYAN, NC & PULHIN, FB 2004. Carbon stocks assessment of a secondary forest in Mount Makiling Forest Reserve, Philippines. Tropical forests are important source and sink of carbon (C). However, there are limited ...

Journal of Sustainable Development, 2012

Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2016

Although agroforestry has been promoted in the Philippines through various programs and policies,... more 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 change. Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this study identified the selection criteria and the priority farming systems and tree species of smallholder farmers in Lantapan, Bukidnon. Findings showed that financial benefit was the main consideration of both male and female farmers for crop selection along with other aspects of well-being (i.e. regulatory services, food security). Results indicated that both groups perceived crop-based farms as more beneficial than tree-based farms. In terms of tree species, women preferred plantation crops and timber trees, while men favored fruit trees. These results showed that it is important to en...

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2019

Climate change adaptation is vital for farmers in developing countries due to the high vulnerabil... more 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 vegetable farmers in La Trinidad, Benguet in the Philippines. Guided by the Sustainable Livelihoods framework, thirty variables under the five livelihood capitals were used to compute Household Adaptive Capacity Index (HACI). Organic farming households have higher adaptive capacity than the conventional group, and have higher natural, financial, human, and social capital. The higher adaptive capacity of organic farmers was due to farm practices related to organic agriculture such as crop diversification, sustainable land management, and participation in organizations. This indicated that organic farming potentially enhances adaptive capacity of ve...

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2019

This study examined the involvement of women in agricultural decision-making among farming househ... more 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 upland communities. More than 50% of husbands solely made decisions on choice of food crops, cash crops, tree species, and farm production. This parallel findings in the Philippines showing male dominance in agricultural production. Nevertheless, women still participated in decision-making in a limited way as 13-16% of them singly decided on behalf of the household while 30-38% made decisions together with the husband. Following the Sustainable Livelihood Framework, an adaptive capacity index was developed for the households. The analysis revealed that 96.17% of the respondents had low (<0.5) and 3.83% had medium adaptive capacity (>0.5)...

Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2021

Two related single-valued landscape fragmentation indices D and F are proposed, based on patch ag... more 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 indices, i.e., the Matheron index based solely on normalized unlike joins, and the Normalized Hypsometric Curve (NHMC) index from GUIDOS Toolbox. All were plotted chronologically, and also against percent non-forest (%nf) of the landscape, and the trajectories were compared for behavior. The NHMC index starts high even if deforestation is low, and continues increasing even further as deforestation continues, while the other three indices all start close to zero and increase gradually. F mimics D very closely, and the Matheron index only behaves differently from F and D at the end of the data range. The deviation may be due to patch aggregatio...

This dataset was moved to: https://doi.org/10.34725/DVN/28828N/A

Abstract. The role of forestry projects in carbon conservation and sequestration is receiving muc... more Abstract. The role of forestry projects in carbon conservation and sequestration is receiving much attention because of their role in the mitigation of climate change. The main objective of the study is to analyze the potential of the Upper Magat Watershed for a carbon sequestration project. The three main development components of the project are forest conservation, tree plantations, and agroforestry farm development. At Year 30, the watershed can attain a net carbon benefit of 19.5 M tC at a cost of US $ 34.5 M. The potential leakage of the project is estimated using historical experience in technology adoption in watershed areas in the Philippines and a high adoption rate. Two leakage scenarios were used: baseline and project leakage scenarios. Most of the leakage occurs in the first 10 years of the project as displacement of livelihood occurs during this time. The carbon lost via leakage is estimated to be 3.7 M tC in the historical adoption scenario, and 8.1 M tC under the enh...