Elmer Mercado

Elmer Mercado is a multi-dimensional professional with more than 20 years field and management experience in natural resources and environmental management/governance; integrated ecosystems and land use (climate change resiliency/disaster risk reduction) management and planning, local governance and decentralization; institutional development, training and capacity building; social marketing/communications, policy advocacy/social mobilization/coalition building; social sector safeguards and development; and project and programme preparation, development, results monitoring and evaluation. He has worked with major multilateral and bilateral donor agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNDP, European Union, USAID, AusAID, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), DFATD-Canada, GIZ, IFAD, JICA, among others.

Aside from his extensive work as a technical consultant, team leader and specialist for various donor agencies, he also held very responsible positions in national government and legislature specifically as Undersecretary’s for Field Operations and later on Environment and Programme Development for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from 1998-1999 as well as Chief of Staff in the House of Representatives and Senate of the Philippines for the chambers’ respective Office of the Majority Leader. 

He served as team leader and climate change resilience planner for the Climate Change Commission (CCC)-Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI) Project on Climate Resilience Green Growth (CRGG) Planning for Palawan and Oriental Mindoro that provides technical assistance and capacity building to the LGU Provinces of Palawan and Oriental Mindoro to strengthen and enhance the climate resiliency of the province’s key economic sectors and communities and sustain growth. He also  led another CCC capacity building project: CCC Ecotown Trainors and LGU Training Programme that would roll-out nationwide a systematic and standard modules to train and capacity all the country’s LGUs in formulation and implementing local climate change action plans and build communities for resilience.

His other work on climate resilience and adaptation planning was with the GIZ as Integrated Ecosystems and Land Use/Climate Change Resiliency Management and Planning Advisor; AUSAID as Land Administration and Management Specialist for its “Building the Resilience and Awareness of Metro Manila Communities to Natural Disaster and Climate Change Impacts (BRACE) Preparatory Project; and, French Development Agency (AFD) and DILG on the preparation of a Disaster Risk Management Information and Audit System for LGUs; and, another AFD project in the preparation of local disaster risk reduction and management plans (LDRRMP) for the cities of Sta. Rosa, Dagupan and General Santos City.   He is now working as disaster risk reduction management specialist in the updating of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) of Zamboanga City under internationally-renowned Filipino planning firm, Palafox and Associates.

He is a passionate advocate of holistic and sustainable land use and integrated ecosystems management or ‘ridge-to-reef’ planning and has been at the forefront in the advocacy for the passage of a National Land Use Act in the country. He served as National Land Use Planning Advisor working on the passage of the proposed National Land Use Act in the 15th Congress. Recently, he led a team of land use and resource management specialists that provided technical assistance and support to the HLURB in revising and enhancing the Guidelines to the Preparation of Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUP) that led to issuance of the new 2014 eCLUP Guidelines in November 2014