Plaza Heneral Santos in General Santos City. Photo credit: RobSison Videography.
The General Santos Green City Action Plan (GCAP) was launched last month. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) formally turned over the plan to the city government, headed by Mayor Lorelie G. Pacquiao, on 12 April.
A statement from the mayor’s office said the plan will serve as a guide in developing General Santos as the “green city of the south.” It will help the local government build a progressive city while protecting and preserving the environment for future generations.
Located in the southern part of the Philippines, General Santos in Mindanao is one of the pilot cities under BIMP-EAGA’s Green Cities Initiative, a project supported by ADB. GCAPs for Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia were completed in 2017 and 2019.
“Cities are the primary drivers of economic growth in ASEAN—producing about 70% of the region’s GDP,” said Alfredo Perdiguero, Director of the Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division at ADB’s Southeast Asia Regional Department, at the launch and turnover ceremony. “However, while cities are key engines of growth, they are also the breeding ground for development problems. Rapid urbanization can exacerbate poverty, put a significant strain on cities as they contend with air, water and noise pollution, traffic congestion, inadequate solid waste management, and wastewater treatment. Poorly managed urbanization also intensifies climate change risks and increases vulnerability to hazards.”
General Santos City is a highly urbanized city of Mindanao’s SOCCSKSARGEN Region and the fifth most populous city in the Philippines. It serves as the region’s premier agro-industrial, commercial, financial, and logistics hub. It hosts the largest international fish port complex and is considered the “tuna capital of the Philippines” with seven of the country’s eight tuna canneries operating in the city. It is strategically located in BIMP-EAGA with a modern seaport, airport, and fish port that offer good prospects for cross‑border connectivity, trade, investments, and tourism.
General Santos is also an area of high biodiversity value. It has complex and diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, which serve as natural habitats for endemic flora and fauna. Sarangani Bay is a protected seascape with a biodiverse ecosystem of coral reefs, seagrass, mangrove forests, and many unique and endangered wildlife species.
“The importance of the General Santos GCAP cannot be understated as it details specific and localized initiatives for green development and investment, and covers urban management and institutional aspects, capacity development, and financing, as well as performance-monitoring indicators. It incorporates many of the city’s plans and impressive initiatives to make General Santos clean, green, and livable for its residents,” said Perdiguero.
The GCAP for General Santos is an integrated package of priority green investment projects that will contribute to the city’s energy efficiency, reduced reliance on nonrenewable energy sources, climate change resilience, resource efficiency, sustainable and low-carbon transportation systems, waste reduction and management, water cycle management, livability, and integrated and inclusive planning and implementation. It was developed by the City Green Team under the guidance of the City Mayor’s Office and with the technical assistance of ADB.
The plan identifies 56 green projects, including eight big-ticket projects on water supply, sewerage treatment plants, solid waste management system, river esplanade and baywalk projects, coastal ecotourism projects, public parks development, and public utility vehicle modernization program. The estimated cost of these projects is more than 19 billion pesos (about $352 million).